The Village Clerk

    People are complicated. We are shaped by our genetic composition, family, choices, and experiences to become unique individuals. However complicated people may be, though, we have a tendency to oversimplify them, especially those with whom we don’t see eye-to-eye. We often see no wrong in the actions of those we love or admire, while seeing no good in the actions of those we disagree with or dislike.

     As a child, I remember hiding from an old (to me) lady who drove through Fairfax in a large car. I don’t know who cautioned me about her, but it was generally accepted among my childhood circle that this lady was important and mean and, as such, was to be avoided. This lady was Virmorgan Ziegler.

     I knew of Mrs. Ziegler - everyone in Fairfax did - but to the best of my recollection I never had a conversation with her. I didn’t know her personally, only by reputation. Even today, mention her name to Fairfax old-timers and the most common comment is that “She ran the Village of Fairfax.” Kids of my generation told me how she yelled at or even fired a shotgun with dry dirt or rock salt at them if they trespassed or came near her property on Watterson, earning her the nickname “Old Lady Buckshot.” However, Virmorgan Ziegler was much more than her tough-as-nails reputation.

     Our story begins in 1907, when John Morgan Lucus, a widowed 31-year-old wagon driver, married Clara Virginia Duerig, an almost 17-year-old sales clerk at Shillito’s Department Store. It was over seven years before the Lucuses had their first and only child, a girl they named Virmorgan, on February 19, 1915.

     Virmorgan Lucus was born in northern Kentucky and spent her early childhood there. On December 3, 1921 (yes, she still remembered the exact date decades later), the Lucus family moved to Washington (now Watterson) Road near High Street in the Fairfax Subdivision. The first night they discovered the house was infested with mice and within the next few days Mr. Lucus trapped over twenty of the little critters. There was no indoor plumbing, but the property had a natural spring and they pumped water into the house from the spring. The household had an outhouse. Even though the subdivision got water lines in the mid-1920s, the Lucus family had grown so accustomed to pumping water from their spring that they didn’t connect the house to the water lines until 1949.

     The Lucus property consisted of four lots, two of which fronted on Washington Road and two that fronted on Bancroft Street. Like most other families in the area, they had a garden and kept chickens. There was no telephone service and no door-to-door mail delivery.

     Young Virmorgan started school in Fairfax in the fall of 1922, attending a one-room school at the corner of Wooster Pike and Spring Street. She was among the first students of the new Dale Park School in Mariemont when it opened in 1925. She later attended Terrace Park School and graduated in 1931. At this time in our nation’s history, fewer than one-third of teenagers graduated from high school.

Terrace Park High School Class of 1931. Virmorgan Lucus is fourth from the left in the first row.

From www.tphistoricalsociety.org

    Virmorgan, whose father had a sixth-grade education and mother had completed two years of high school, then continued her education at the University of Cincinnati. In 1920, UC had been the first university in the United States to admit women to preparatory programs for engineering. Virmorgan entered the College of Engineering and Commerce. She also had a job where she worked from 5:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. She rode the streetcar to the stop at Bramble and Whetsel in Madisonville where her mother met her at 12:30 a.m. each night and walked home with her. Street lights were rare in those days, so the streets were pitch black.

     Virmorgan did quite well at UC. She was a member of Chi Delta Phi Literary Honor Society and Pi Chi Epsilon, which was an honorary scholastic and activity sorority for students of the College of Engineering and Commerce. She was secretary of Chi Delta Phi in her pre-junior year and president of Pi Chi Epsilon in her senior year. She was also a member of the Chem Commerce Club and the Co-Op Club.

Virmorgan (front row, second from left) as secretary of Chi Delta Phi.

The Cincinnatian, 1936

Virmorgan (center) as president of Pi Chi Epsilon.

The Cincinnatian, 1937

    Virmorgan graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 1937 with a degree in Commercial Engineering.

Graduation picture from the Cincinnati Enquirer, July 11, 1937

    After college, Virmorgan went to work for Ohio National Insurance Company. She met George Ziegler at Ohio National, where he had been employed since 1933. He was a graduate of Miami University, where he had studied journalism and education. George entered the United States Army in June 1942. On December 18, 1942, Virmorgan and George were married at Mariemont Community Church. George was serving at Fort McClellan, Alabama at the time and remained in the Army until June 1946. While George was in the army, Virmorgan continued to live with her parents. Around the time George was discharged, Virmorgan purchased property in Fairfax, including a house on Lonsdale. Both Virmorgan and George Ziegler continued to work at Ohio National.

     I have been told that the Zieglers enjoyed dancing. They also played cards with Mrs. Ziegler’s parents, where the room was typically thick with cigarette smoke. Mrs. Ziegler didn’t smoke, but the second-hand smoke didn’t bother her.

     Mrs. Ziegler was a faithful member of Fairfax Presbyterian Church. It isn’t clear whether she was attending there when the church (then on Wooster Pike) was formally organized in 1924, but she was by the time the church moved to Southern Avenue in late 1939. She served as church treasurer and financial secretary. She attended services every Sunday, except when she was sick and she was very rarely sick.

     In the early 1950s, the push to incorporate Fairfax as a village was on, with the Fairfax Welfare Association (now the Civic Association) leading the way. Around this time, Mrs. Ziegler became the recording secretary for the Association. 

Virmorgan Ziegler (left) as recording secretary of the Fairfax Welfare Association, pictured with

Association president Howard Reitz and attorney George Weber.

From The Messenger, June 12, 1953

    When Fairfax became incorporated in 1955, Virmorgan Ziegler was elected village clerk. She later said she had misgivings about running for elected office and that her mother was “highly opposed.” She credited her position as recording secretary for the Civic Association for her election, saying “I guess that’s why I was nominated for clerk.” Among her to-do items for the village were street repairs and lighting, and developing a building code and zoning ordinance. When the village needed a municipal building in 1958, she drew up the floor plan.

     It wasn’t long before Mrs. Ziegler began butting heads with other village officials. Council passed a resolution to place a $1.4 million tax levy on the November 1956 ballot. Ohio law limited municipalities to issuing bonds that were less than five percent of their tax duplicate. Ziegler refused to certify the bond issue because it would exceed the five percent limitation. An action to force her to certify the issue was filed by Elsie Cribbet, Fairfax property owner and taxpayer (and wife of councilmember Ronald Cribbet). The First District Court of Appeals ordered Mrs. Ziegler to certify the issue, stating that the village’s indebtedness at the time the bonds were issued would determine whether the sale would exceed the limit. Another common comment about Mrs. Ziegler was that she handled the village’s money as she would handle her own.

     For the next two decades, Virmorgan Ziegler served as village clerk with no opposition for the office. She went through a number of losses and personal challenges during those years. On January 20, 1958, her father John Lucus died. George Ziegler retired as editor and educational director for Ohio National Life Insurance Company in 1968. Her mother Clara Lucus had a stroke in 1973. On January 16, 1975, George passed away after a long battle with emphysema.

     In 1975, Mrs. Ziegler faced her first opposition for village clerk and won by 39 votes. Clara Lucas had another stroke in 1976 and her daughter placed her in a long-term care facility because she was partially paralyzed. Mrs. Ziegler retired as Manager of Agents Licenses and Contracts for Ohio National in February 1976. She cared for her mother, visiting her every day.

     In June 1976, the Cincinnati Enquirer ran a profile of Mrs. Ziegler. She expressed her pride in Fairfax. The reporter noted that “Talking about Fairfax brings out a warmth in her” and “She smiles easily and often, appearing so unlike the stern, stoic type of personality she often displays at council meetings. . . . Her eyes . . . are alive with awareness and intelligence.” She said she hoped that village residents regarded her with “respect and confidence and as an individual who has a deep, sincere interest in the village.” However, she also acknowledged that she wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea “because I am not a yes person and when I am on the other side of the fence, so to speak, it’s because of my consideration of what is financially beneficial to the village.” 

From the Cincinnati Enquirer, June 27, 1976

    We can see an example of her “deep, sincere interest in the village” when she confronted someone “on the other side of the fence” regarding a 1978 Cincinnati Post article about the financial challenges of the MariElders, the senior citizens’ group in Mariemont. The reporter wrote that the “MariElders draw members from lower income areas like Fairfax.” Mrs. Ziegler took exception to this statement and in a letter to the editor wrote that “to the residents of Fairfax it smacked of a derogatory nature.” She said that the MariElders asserted that they made no such statement to the Post but, regardless, had sent a letter to Fairfax village council to try to smooth things over. She said that Fairfax residents were offended by the statement in the Post article and it would “not be easily forgotten by those in Fairfax.” You messed with Fairfax and, by extension, Virmorgan Ziegler at your own risk!

     As village clerk, she burned the midnight oil, working on village business well into the night and on weekends, saying “I do whatever it takes to get everything done.” At one point she estimated that she worked 250 hours a month. She handled village mail and phone calls, answered residents’ questions, kept village records, took the minutes at council meetings, and served as clerk of the mayor’s court. She was all business at council meetings and didn’t have much patience with councilmembers’ bickering. I have had occasion to review some of Mrs. Ziegler’s council minutes, which are typed on legal-sized onion paper with very rare typographical errors. They are detailed and, despite her reputation for being outspoken, do not document her personal opinions.

     In 1979, the Cincinnati Post profiled Mrs. Ziegler. Despite her tough exterior, she acknowledged that she had struggles like anyone else, specifically in dealing with placing her mother in a nursing home and her husband’s death. She said, “I had sweared that I would care for my mother at home as long as I possibly could. And I was still having a hard time accepting my husband's death. I'm only coming out of that now. . . . You know, people carry so much inside. You may be suffering inside and no one knows it for the longest time."

     Discontent was brewing in her public life, though. In the 1979 election, councilmember Gary Hodge challenged incumbent Ronald Cribbet for mayor. Cribbet had served on council from incorporation until he became mayor in 1962 and served as mayor since then. Although Cribbet won the election in a landslide, Hodge didn’t fade into the shadows. He continued to challenge the old guard for years to come and Virmorgan Ziegler was a frequent foil.

     In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the village and Mrs. Ziegler ran afoul of the State Auditor’s office. The village’s annual reports were sometimes filed late, financial reports to council were not being made on a regular basis, accounting practices were found to be inefficient, and deposits of village funds weren’t made on a daily basis, as required by law. On at least three occasions, the village was fined $750 for the late reports. Despite these shortcomings, there were no missing funds and no fraud. The Auditor’s office recommended that someone with an accounting background handle the record keeping. They also recommended that Mrs. Ziegler not handle both the village clerk and clerk of mayor’s court positions, citing a conflict of interest.

     At the January 1982 council meeting, council unanimously passed an earnings tax increase and a wage increase for village employees. Gary Hodge didn’t attend the meeting, though, saying, “I have requested [financial] information and I have not received it. My conscience tells me I cannot vote on such an issue without my knowing complete figures which I requested . . . My absence from this meeting is also a form of protest in the way that a duly elected councilman has not been provided with the needed information." He further stated that he would ask the State Auditor’s office to investigate why he was not provided with the financial information. When a Cincinnati Post reporter asked Mrs. Ziegler after the meeting if she had refused to provide Hodge with financial information, she said, “I am not answering that question.”

     On October 23, 1982, Mrs. Ziegler’s mother, Clara Lucus, passed away after suffering a series of strokes over a number of years. She was 91 years old. During her mother’s final illness, Mrs. Ziegler had stepped back a bit from her village clerk duties.

     In early January 1983, council was scrambling to schedule a special meeting because they had not yet passed a 1983 budget. If the budget wasn’t passed quickly, village employees wouldn’t receive their paychecks. Gary Hodge was the holdout, saying "I have been calling for financial reports every month for the past 12 months, and have been refused. It would be hypocritical for me to vote this month on appropriations when I still don't have the financial report. The only thing I can do is apologize to the employees that matters have come to this." Village employees did, in fact, miss a paycheck, but the budget passed soon thereafter.

     Later that year, Hodge and other residents turned in two petitions to Mrs. Ziegler for filing with the Hamilton County Board of Elections for the November ballot. One petition would force the village clerk to prepare quarterly and annual financial reports. The other set forth procedures for handling village expenditures. Both petitions were clearly aimed at Virmorgan Ziegler and the issues found in the state audits. The petitions were delivered to Mrs. Ziegler on a timely basis, but she filed them with the Board of Elections one day late. Hodge and Michael Orchin, who was running against Mrs. Ziegler for village clerk, accused her of intentionally filing the petitions late.  The Board of Elections was split on whether to allow the issues on the ballot and Ohio Secretary of State Sherrod Brown was the tie-breaker. Brown voted to strike the issues from the ballot for late filing.

     1983 was only the second time Virmorgan Ziegler was challenged for village clerk. Her opponent, Michael Orchin, said “Current officeholders have become unresponsive. The people at the core of village government have been in power for so long that it has become stagnant and self-serving, only concerned with their own views. . . . The clerk's office has assumed responsibilities of other positions to the point that one person is running the affairs of the whole village." Ziegler defeated Orchin by nearly 200 votes.

     In June 1987, Ralph Metzger, who had served as village treasurer since incorporation, passed away. In July, Mayor Ron Cribbet appointed Mrs. Ziegler to the new position of clerk-treasurer. Later that year she ran unopposed for the position of clerk-treasurer.

     On May 3, 1990, Gary Hodge and other like-minded residents submitted four petitions for the fall ballot. They were a little more proactive this time, pushing to ensure that Mrs. Ziegler submitted them to the Board of Elections on a timely basis. In early August, Hodge accused Ziegler of waiting until the filing deadline of August 23, so if there were problems with the petitions the petitioners wouldn’t have time to address them. Mrs. Ziegler took offense and in a letter to council said that Hodge owed her a public apology, saying, "Mr. Hodge has threatened my credibility, questioned my responsibility, attacked my integrity and attempted to defame my character."

     And if those pesky petitions were not enough, the most recent State Auditor’s report was in and it wasn’t good news. There were three non-compliance citations, failure to file an annual financial report on time, not depositing public funds on a daily basis, and failure to pay fines, forfeitures, and costs from mayor’s court to the clerk-treasurer on a timely basis. The late filing citation had an associated $750 fine, which Mrs. Ziegler paid herself. When asked why she personally paid the fee, she answered, “that’s nobody’s business.” Mayor Ted Shannon said that because there had been earlier fines for the same issues, council told Mrs. Ziegler that she, not the village, would be responsible for paying the fine.

     Although early 1991 brought yet another conflict between Ziegler and Hodge over a petition issue, Virmorgan Ziegler was to face the biggest challenge in her public career that fall, when Kathy Rielage successfully ran against her for the clerk-treasurer position. Virmorgan Ziegler was the last of the original Fairfax elected officials to go, perhaps a victim of her stubborn, controlling, take-no-prisoners reputation. Although she still had a great number of supporters, most voters were ready for change.

     At the time she left the clerk-treasurer’s office, the Cincinnati Enquirer published an article about Mrs. Ziegler. Mayor Ted Shannon said, "Everybody knows Virmorgan. They either love her or hate her. She's got a heart of gold - a really good person. She'd do anything in the world for you. But there's no doubt where she stands on any item. She can be very abrupt and abrasive, and some people take it wrong. That's just her way. People who really know her, value her." He said her "good sense of humor doesn't always show." She's "very opinionated" and "will stick to her guns if she thinks she's right. But if you prove your idea is better, she'll support you all the way." He further said, "The village is her family. Her main concerns are with the welfare of the village."

     In the article, Mrs. Ziegler admitted that she doesn't "play ring around the rosy" with people. She said she didn't understand why people perceived her, as the Enquirer wrote, as "contrary, hateful, and hard to deal with.” She said, "If people think that, I'm sorry. I don't mean to offend anyone. I don't smile every time you ask me a question. But I'll give you the required answer - unadulterated. I have never let people get close to me. I was raised as an only child and I was taught to be independent and strong. Those things can have an effect on you."

     50 residents attended Mrs. Ziegler’s final council meeting as clerk-treasurer on March 19, 1992. Council proclaimed April 26, 1992 as Appreciation Day for Virmorgan Ziegler, with a celebration at the recreation center.

Cincinnati Enquirer, March 27, 1992

    However, Virmorgan Ziegler was not done serving in the Village of Fairfax and not everyone was celebrating her. On April 1, 1992, Mayor Shannon appointed Mrs. Ziegler clerk of mayor’s court. Gary Hodge and some other residents pointed out a council policy of not appointing defeated candidates to fill village offices. They looked at the appointment as hypocritical and circulated a petition to prohibit Ziegler from holding any appointed village office unless approved by voters. Mrs. Ziegler responded, "Since when can the populace control the appointment of an employee by an executive? Gary Hodge has a vicious hatred against me." Mayor Shannon agreed that he had the right to appoint whomever he wanted as clerk of mayor’s court. Village officials said the policy of not appointing defeated candidates to open offices was only for elected offices and clerk of courts wasn’t an elected position. The issue would appear on the November ballot.

     There were three other issues on the ballot that fall, including one imposing term limits for elected officials to two consecutive four-year terms with one four-year term out of office before a candidate could run again. The issue included retroactive service. In November, the term limit issue passed. The Ziegler appointment issue failed by only a few votes.

     In honor of Virmorgan Ziegler, in 1992 the village dedicated Ziegler Park at the north end of Southern Avenue, near the Swim Club. The park included a playground, batting cage, and soccer field.

Ziegler Park today

    The term limit ordinance did not dissuade Mrs. Ziegler from filing as a candidate for village council in 1993. However, the Hamilton County Board of Elections blocked her candidacy due to Fairfax’s term limit ordinance. Mrs. Ziegler filed suit and her attorney argued that retroactive term limits were unconstitutional. The Ohio Supreme Court agreed and her name was placed on the November ballot. She won election to village council by a narrow margin, placing fourth out of nine candidates.

     In 1995, Ted Shannon ran for Columbia Township trustee and didn’t pursue reelection as Fairfax mayor. The candidates for mayor that year were Dirk Hammersmith, Gary Hodge, and Ziegler. Hammersmith won the election and Mrs. Ziegler came in third with only 19 percent of the vote.

     In 1997, she ran for reelection to village council, but did not retain her seat, finishing fifth for four open positions. In November 1999, she ran again for clerk-treasurer. She was defeated by Bill Knabb. When most people would be content to live out their days in peace and quiet, in 2001 at the age of 86, Virmorgan Ziegler ran unopposed for a village council seat. She was over 90 when her final term was complete.

     Virmorgan Lucus Ziegler died on May 18, 2008 at Hospice of Cincinnati in Anderson Township. In addition to her service in elected office, she was a longtime member of the Fairfax Civic Association, Fairfax Presbyterian Church, Fairfax Senior Citizens and the Fairfax Swim Club.

     Mrs. Ziegler created a scholarship at her death to be awarded annually to a Fairfax high school senior, the John M. Lucus / Virmorgan L. Ziegler Scholarship. My niece was the 2013 recipient and our family was quite appreciative.

     I suspect that most of us have known at least one person like Mrs. Ziegler, despised by some people and admired by others. I remember a co-worker in my younger days as a sales associate at McAlpin’s. Most people didn’t want to work with her because she had impossibly high standards and was bossy and opinionated. For some reason, she seemed to like me. Yes, she would complain about, well, nearly everything, but would also regale me with stories from her interesting, colorful past. As much as her associates didn’t want to deal with her, she had a flock of loyal customers who didn’t want anyone else to help them.

     I’ll say it again; people are complicated. Although there is no excuse for rudeness or bad behavior, I wish we all would take the time to try to understand each other and show others the grace we want them to show to us.

The Crime Log

    Several months ago, I read a social media rant by a Fairfax resident who was critical of the community because of a crime of which she was a victim. I am always perplexed by people who believe that there are communities that are completely wholesome, idyllic, and crime-free. Fairfax is a pretty safe place with a lot of good things going for it, but has never, ever been crime-free.

     In previous posts I have covered some of our community’s more high-profile crimes. (See The Service Station Murder, The Gambling Scene Part 1 and Part 2, and The Police Shootout.) However, throughout its history, crime in Fairfax has run the gamut. There was moonshining during Prohibition. There have been robberies and burglaries at businesses like Yochum’s Grocery, Atwood’s Pharmacy, and King Kwik. There were break-ins at Fairfax School and even a couple in the 1970s at the police station. And there was a particularly distressing kidnapping and murder of an innocent child that will be covered in an article later this year. Domestic violence, assault, vandalism, murder; it has all happened here.

     Fairfax is a nice community, but it wasn’t even crime-free in the “good old days” when these crimes, a few of the more newsworthy ones in our history, occurred:

The Lillie Hammond Homicide

    In April 1930, 19-year-old Lillie Hammond and her 28-year-old husband William Barker Hammond were renting a home on Eleanor Street, where they lived with their nine-month-old son Stanley. They were expecting a second child and soon relocated to a home on Southern Avenue near Wooster Pike.

     On August 8, 1930, the pregnant Lillie Hammond was killed by a gunshot to the head, fired by her husband Barker.

     Barker’s story was that after work that day, he went to town for a shave and haircut. He arrived home at around 10:30 p.m. and Lillie prepared a meal for him. They went to their bedroom and prepared to go to bed. There was an old revolver on the dresser and he said to her, “I wonder if this old gun would shoot.” He said the gun discharged as he was handling it and that the shooting was accidental.

     The Hammonds’ neighbors notified the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Department, while Barker, inexplicably, went to his brother Lawrence’s home in Newtown. When Barker returned to his own home, deputies took him into custody.

August 9, 1930 Cincinnati Times-Star

    Lillie’s funeral was on August 10, 1930 and Barker was permitted to attend in the custody of two deputies. Enroute to the funeral home, Hammond cried out denials that the shooting was intentional and said that he had loved his wife. At the funeral home he cried, “What have I done?” and slumped over the coffin.

     The Hamilton County coroner and sheriff weren’t buying Hammond’s story. They said that the evidence showed that the gun’s trigger had been pulled twice, but had only fired once. There was also gunpowder in the wound, indicating that the shot had been fired from close proximity. A Grand Jury indicted him for second degree murder.

     Barker Hammond went to trial in February 1931, still insisting that the shooting was accidental. Prosecutors argued that the Hammonds had quarreled and Barker shot Lillie in anger. The first trial ended in a hung jury.

     The case was retried in May 1931 and William Barker Hammond was convicted of manslaughter. He was sentenced to 10 years in the Ohio Penitentiary. Hammond’s defense attorney requested that the court either suspend the sentence or place him on probation, since the shooting was an accident. The judge denied the request. Barker Hammond served his sentence and was paroled in September 1942.

 

The Frank Rogers Ax Attack

    35-year-old Frank Rogers and his brother James operated a wood yard and lived together with their families on Wooster Pike. On the night of January 26, 1942, James and his wife were out for the evening with another couple. Frank and his 24-year-old wife Pearl were in bed when there was a knock on their door. Pearl answered the door to find two men and described the ensuing scene as follows:

I didn’t say a word to them, but went in the bedroom and told Frank someone wanted to see him. The men came in and then said they were going to kill us. One of them went into the kitchen and got the ax. He kept swinging at Frank and finally hit him. They kept saying they were going to kill us both. I begged them to stop.

    Pearl was struck on the head with a flashlight and rendered unconscious. The intruders began firing a .12-gauge shotgun and .32-gauge pistol owned by James Rogers, shooting out all lights and several windows. They had cut the telephone lines before they entered the house. They then tried to set the house on fire by knocking over a lighted lamp. They stole Mrs. James Rogers’ purse and left in James Rogers’ car. James Rogers and his wife returned home about 10 minutes after the attack and called the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Department.

     A description of the stolen vehicle was broadcasted and Cincinnati police located the car and assailants in the West End, even though the car’s license plates had been changed. The attackers were apprehended and identified as Willie Cain and Isaac Johnson. Cain was a cousin of the Rogers brothers and had previously been incarcerated in Kentucky for manslaughter. Johnson had escaped from a Kentucky jail by sawing through the bars while awaiting transfer to prison on a robbery conviction. Both Cain and Johnson had worked for the Rogers brothers.

     James Rogers speculated that the attack was actually a case of mistaken identity because his wife had received an anonymous phone call weeks earlier threatening her and her husband.

     Frank Rogers’ injuries were so severe that he required several blood transfusions and his leg had to be amputated. He survived, though, and lived over 30 years more.

Frank Rogers pictured in his hospital bed, January 27, 1942 Cincinnati Post

     Cain and Johnson were each charged with two counts of assault to kill, and one count of grand larceny. Cain pleaded guilty to all charges. Johnson was found guilty of the assault charges and pleaded guilty to grand larceny.

     There is an interesting twist to this story. It seems that Pearl wasn’t actually married to Frank Rogers, but at the time of the attack she was married to two other men. Upon seeing her photo in a newspaper identified as “Mrs. Pearl Rogers,” her second husband filed for divorce. During these proceedings, Pearl admitted that she and her first husband had never divorced and her second husband was granted a divorce.

     I’m not sure if a journalist got some facts wrong or I just watch too much true crime, but there seem to be a few problems with this story. There some to be some missing pieces. And Pearl? I think authorities needed to do a deeper dive on that girl. 

 

The Raymond Applegate Murder

    On the evening of Monday October 15, 1943, 23-year-old Raymond Applegate was driving around his hometown of Milford, Ohio with his 17-year-old brother-in-law, Roy Miller. They passed two Milford girls, Merle McFarland and Juanita Bernard, who were looking for a ride to the Cincinnati bakery where they worked. Applegate had loaned money to a Fairfax man who frequented Uncle Al’s Grill (where Mac’s Pizza Pub is currently located) and offered the girls a ride with the intention of stopping at Uncle Al’s to pick up his money.

     While Applegate was inside Uncle Al’s, Merle McFarland spotted her brother-in-law Roscoe Dalton across the street from the café and exited the car to speak with him. When Applegate left the café, he approached McFarland and Dalton saying, “Come on, Merle. You’ll be late for work.” Without saying a word, Dalton drew a revolver and shot Applegate in the chest.

     Applegate was transported to Bethesda Hospital in critical condition. The bullet had just missed his heart and lodged in his spinal cord. He was able to give a statement to police about what had transpired. He said, “I never had a chance . . . I don’t know what it’s all about.” He said he didn’t know the man who shot him and had never spoken to him. Raymond Applegate died two days after being shot. He left behind his wife Mary Catherine and two-year-old and seven-month-old daughters.

     Roscoe Dalton’s story didn’t differ significantly from Applegate’s. Dalton said “[Applegate] was coming toward me. I shot him when he reached for his pocket.” Dalton said he was carrying a gun because “I expected some trouble,” though he said he didn’t know Applegate. He said he thought Applegate was armed. Dalton, a resident of Miami Township in Clermont County, was married and the father of three small children. 

November 18, 1943, Cincinnati Enquirer

    Initially, Dalton planned to argue self-defense and pleaded not guilty. However, he later withdrew his not guilty plea and pleaded guilty to second degree murder. He was given a life sentence, but was paroled at some point.

 

The William Storer Assault

        On Saturday March 16, 1946, 11-year-old William Storer reported that he went to a greenhouse located behind Fairfax School, seeking summer work there. He was walking through the woods, returning to his home on Germania, when he encountered four older boys. He recognized the boys, but didn’t know where they lived or their names, other than that one was called “Whitey.”

     William said, "They told me I had no business in the woods. They tied my hands behind my back and tied my feet in burlap sacks. Then they tied [me] head down to the tree and set fire to the sacks. Then they ran away. I kicked and I hollered for help.” That’s right, an 11-year-old Fairfax child was allegedly hung upside down and set on fire.

     William said he was hanging from the tree for around 10 minutes when two Hyde Park girls came to his rescue. The girls were on a hiking and picnic trip. The girls freed the boy and helped him to the house where he lived with his grandparents. Neither William,  nor his grandparents, got the girls’ names.

     Three days after the attack, the burns on William’s ankles didn’t seem to be improving. His parents took him to a physician, who insisted that the attack be reported to the authorities. On March 19, Hamilton County Sheriff C. Taylor Handman said that his department was investigating the “Gestapo” methods used in the “torturing by fire” of William Storer. The following day, three boys aged 13 to 15 admitted to tying the boy to the tree. They denied setting fire to him, though, saying that he must have set fire to himself.

William Storer and his grandmother Carrie Beckler

March 19, 1946 Cincinnati Times Star

    The boys and their parents were ordered to appear in Juvenile Court on March 22, 1946. Of course, the story stops abruptly at this point due to the confidential nature of Juvenile Court proceedings. 

The Sportswear Manufacturer

    It was a fixture from childhood until I was a young adult. I remember seeing the blue building atop the hill as we travelled west on Columbia Parkway to the Red Bank Road exit enroute to Swallen’s. In case there was any doubt what you were looking at, there was the sign - VELVA SHEEN.

From the April 13, 1969 Cincinnati Enquirer

    Velva Sheen was founded in 1936 by Oscar Schroeder and was originally a flag and banner manufacturer. In its early years, the plant was located at various sites in Over the Rhine and the West End. In 1957, Robert Rielly, a St. Xavier High School and Xavier University graduate and veteran of World War II, purchased Velva Sheen. His brother, William, an attorney, served as a consultant and later joined the company full time. William was also a St. Xavier and Xavier University graduate and World War II veteran and had graduated from the University of Cincinnati College of Law. Neither brother had any background in the industry. The company’s annual sales at the time of the acquisition were $500,000 and the company had 20 employees.

     It isn’t clear exactly when Velva Sheen’s focus shifted from printing flags and banners to sportswear, but the 1960s were a period of rapid growth. In June 1960, Velva Sheen moved from Over the Rhine to Gilbert Avenue in Walnut Hills. In June 1963, construction wrapped up on a new 4,000 square foot warehouse facility at the Walnut Hills plant. In 1965, the company produced nearly two million articles, had $3,000,000 in sales, and employed 125 people. The company was already outgrowing its Gilbert Avenue facility and, in June 1966, announced that it was building a new $650,000, 60,000 square foot plant on Virginia Avenue in Fairfax. The location would allow for future expansion.

     The new Fairfax facility was designed specifically for Velva Sheen’s operations. Different departments in the company were identified by different color doors. There was an Art Department where artists created designs or adapted customer designs for screen printing production. The Art Department produced 1200 – 1500 new designs every 22 working days. There was a wood working shop for the manufacture of screen frames. They bought many of the shirts they printed from other companies, but manufactured what they couldn’t buy. Their seamstresses produced up to 2,400 garments each day.

     Velva Sheen created the continuous-motion screen printing equipment they used. The July 29, 1968 Cincinnati Post & Times-Star described the printing process as follows:

The 30-foot-long printing-flocking presses at Velva Sheen move continuously and are operated by a technician with complete control over the process from the first step, the imprint with colored adhesive, to heat treatment of the flocked image in an oven. The garment is first placed on the press under an illuminated image, the adhesive is then impressed through the silk screen and while the operator watches in a mirror, the garment is flocked, the waste flock is recovered by suction, and the garment moves through a 265-degree oven for drying.

From the February 1, 1970 Cincinnati Enquirer

    Although Velva Sheen’s business was mostly with colleges and universities, in 1968 they began offering their products to PTAs, booster clubs, and Little League teams for fundraising purposes. They sold the product to the organizations wholesale, and the organizations then sold the goods for a profit.

From May 20, 1968 Cincinnati Post & Times-Star

    They also had a number of customers from fraternal organizations, camps, the U.S. government, and corporations.

From June 3, 1968 Cincinnati Post & Times-Star

    By 1970, student unrest on U.S. college campuses impacted Velva Sheen’s business. After all, students who were challenging their schools’ authorities, weren’t going to dish out money to advertise those schools on their clothing.

     However, there were certainly designs other than college logos that could be printed on sportswear. One of the biggest sellers locally was the Cool Ghoul shirt. For non-Cincinnatians or younger folks, the Cool Ghoul, portrayed by Dick Von Hoene, was a popular local television character who was a ghoul with a touch of hippie. The Cool Ghoul partnered with Shillito’s department store for a personal appearance at its Downtown location where he autographed short sleeve Velva Sheen sweatshirts with his likeness with “blood red ink.” The event generated an unexpectedly large crowd and the store began running out of shirts. Shillito’s management called Velva Sheen requesting more shirts immediately and the company produced them. The Shillito’s buyer hopped a cab to Velva Sheen, picked up the shirts, and replenished the store’s stock to save the day.

From the March 28,1970  Cincinnati Enquirer

    In 1972, Velva Sheen was acquired by Beatrice Foods. It operated as a division of Beatrice and Velva Sheen management was kept in place with the Rielly brothers remaining in charge.

     Velva Sheen experienced occasional misprints and overruns. Initially, the company operated an outlet store out of the plant. However, around 1973 the Velva Sheen misprint store opened on Wooster Pike in Fairfax. I made my television debut in a Velva Sheen misprint (a local news crew was trailing Santa Claus, who was going house to house visiting children). The shirt was a graying, well-worn graphic tee with a sad-faced cartoon character and the caption “Be nice to me. I had a hard day.” My mom had a Velva Sheen misprint with the caption “Never underestimate the power of a woman.” My favorite misprint store purchase, though, was an orange BGSU tee shirt. I was a freshman in high school and had no idea what BGSU stood for, so my friend and I decided on “Big Girls of Southern Utah.” (My apologies to those of you with an allegiance to Bowling Green State University.)

From the February 7, 1973 Eastern Hills Journal

    The Velva Sheen misprint store on Wooster Pike was only open for around five years, but its closure wasn’t the end to their outlet stores. In August 1978, the Hyde Park outlet store opened and the company ultimately had seven retail locations. They supplemented the misprints and overruns with other sportswear, jackets, shoes, and athletic accessories and began offering screen printing on orders as small as 10 items.

     Over the years, Velva Sheen had tens of thousands of customers. Most of the shirts were hits, but there were a few misses too. Voluptuous actress Raquel Welch starred in the roller derby film Kansas City Rollers and Velva Sheen printed shirts showing her in a roller derby uniform. It failed. Company officials blamed it on women not wanting to wear an image of a well-endowed woman and men not wanting to anger the women in their lives. The company also printed thousands of tee shirts with “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee” for Muhammad Ali’s team in preparation for his Rumble in the Jungle match against George Foreman. The problem? It was printed in English, which wasn’t an official language in Zaire, where the fight was held.

     Some of the more popular designs were a picture of a garden hose with the caption “Up your nose with a rubber hose” (for fans of John Travolta on Welcome Back, Kotter) and the ubiquitous “Virginia Is for Lovers” tee shirts. Velva Sheen printed over 300,000 tee shirts for a Del Monte Foods promotion with captions like “Peas help me” and “Be a human bean.” Before the Charmin bears, the spokesman for the toilet tissue brand was fictional grocer Mr. Whipple, who was constantly miffed at customers who squeezed the Charmin. Procter & Gamble ordered tee shirts with the caption “Please don’t squeeze the Charmin. Squeeze me instead.”

From Etsy.com

    Velva Sheen wouldn’t print just anything on a shirt, though. They wouldn’t print anything they considered obscene or designs with a cigarette. Bill Rielly was a former four pack per day smoker who didn’t want to encourage anyone else to take up the habit.

     Bob Rielly retired from Velva Sheen in 1982. Bill Rielly retired in 1983, but returned as chairman a year later. The company continued to grow and thrive, averaging 10 percent annual growth. They shipped 60,000 garments each day and were the biggest UPS customer in Cincinnati. The company had 90,000 customers around the world, but still did most of their business with college bookstores. They were also licensed to print Muppets, Disney, Looney Toons, Garfield, and Smurfs merchandise. They printed shirts for Major League Baseball and National Football League teams and the NCAA.

     By all reports, Bill Rielly was a hands-on CEO. He enjoyed walking through the plant and talking to his employees about both personal and professional matters. In that respect, he was like Pat Swallen (see The Retailer). Unlike Swallen, though, he didn’t present himself as just a regular guy. He enjoyed international travel and art and displayed some of his art acquisitions at Velva Sheen’s offices. He had a couple of the artists on staff recreate an ancient Egyptian mural in the employee lounge. He also had two Japanese Torii gates installed in front of two of the company’s buildings. Bill Rielly said, "We are in the art business, but people spend most of their waking hours at work that is really not that interesting. I think it's important to make places like the lounge as pleasant as possible."

William Rielly at Velva Sheen headquarters, June 1987 Cincinnati Magazine

    Bill Rielly once confronted an ice cream vendor who sold ice cream cones to his employees that, he said, were half air and half ice cream. When the ice cream man told him no one else had complained, Rielly bought an ice cream machine. Employees had ice cream once every week and on days when the temperature exceeded 90 degrees. He often bought lunch for employees who had to work on Saturdays. He held a contest for employees to guess when the company would print its 200 millionth item with the winner receiving a trip to Walt Disney World. Bill Rielly retired sometime after 1987.

     Some of the more stressful times at Velva Sheen must have been during sports championships, particularly those involving a Cincinnati team. In 1990, Velva Sheen was the only company in the greater Cincinnati area with a Reds’ apparel license. Their artists had created designs for potential division, league, and World Series championships and were marketing them to retailers. MLB prohibited sale of licensed merchandise before a championship was won. Velva Sheen took a chance and began printing division championship shirts before the Reds had actually clinched. They had promised local retailers they would be available the day after the Reds won their division. Many employees worked through the night during the Reds’ World Series run, producing hundreds of thousands of shirts.

    In November 1994, Houston-based Brazos Sportswear, Inc. purchased Velva Sheen with plans to merge it with their licensed sportswear division. The company's headquarters moved to Fairfax. In 1996, the company closed its retail locations to focus on the wholesale business. Within the next year, Brazos acquired more apparel companies, including Cincinnati-based CS Crable Sportswear. In December 1997, Brazos announced that it would close the Fairfax plant and move its headquarters to the CS Crable location in Clermont County. The closure was related to company restructuring to reduce excess capacity due to the recent acquisitions. 129 people worked at the Fairfax plant, 80 of whom lost their jobs.

     Consolidation of company operations wasn’t successful, though, and within a year, Brazos was facing bankruptcy. They had $16.1 million in losses in the first half of 1998 and were delisted from the Nasdaq Stock Market. Brazos filed bankruptcy in January 1999 and announced that their Clermont County plant would close that spring. In May, Brazos announced they planned to sell most of their businesses to pay their creditors. In June, the few remaining employees at the company headquarters relocated to the former Velva Sheen facility in Fairfax. By early 2000, the company was out of business.

     Brothers William and Robert Rielly died within 24 hours of each other in July 2002. In addition to building a small banner and flag printing company into a multimillion-dollar sportswear manufacturer with international clientele, both men were volunteers and philanthropists.

     Topwin, a Japanese-owned California-based company, purchased the rights to the Velva Sheen brand in 2009. They have recreated the original tags, packaging and production method. So, the Velva Sheen name lives on.

From Topwin.com

 

Season's Greetings from Fairfax!

     I love coming across vintage newspaper ads - the old graphics, formal language, long-gone prices. I recently visited the library and reviewed some old copies of The Messenger, a weekly newspaper that covered happenings in several eastern Hamilton County suburbs for decades. Among the interesting finds were Christmas advertisements from some old Fairfax businesses. I supplemented these ads with some from other local newspapers. How many of these businesses do you remember? 

Bill's Pony Keg Station, The Messenger, December 20, 1946

Bon-Ton Cleaners, The Messenger, December 20, 1946

Brandt's Original Christmas Store, Cincinnati Enquirer, November 29, 1978

Ches's Cafe, The Messenger, December 20, 1946

Colonial Barber Shop, Eastern Hills Journal, December 25, 1974

The Court Yard, Cincinnati Enquirer, December 22, 1977

Fairfax Hardware, The Messenger, December 20, 1946

Fairfax Pharmacy, The Messenger, December 20, 1946

Fairfax Tavern, The Messenger, December 20, 1946

Frisch's Mainliner, The Messenger, December 5, 1947

Jim's Shell Service, The Messenger, December 20, 1946

Kream Kottage, The Messenger, December 20, 1946

Kruse's Smoke Shop, The Messenger, December 20, 1946

Miller Brothers Auto Service, The Messenger, December 20, 1946

Posy Patch, Cincinnati Enquirer, November 24, 1995

Snyder's Sohio Service, The Messenger, December 25, 1953

Sport Motors, Cincinnati Post, December 24, 1969

Swallen's, Cincinnati Post and Times-Star, December 16, 1959

Thompson's Party House, The Messenger, December 25, 1953

Tucker Auto Service, The Messenger, December 20, 1946

Wooster Pike Pottery, The Messenger, December 20, 1946

Yochum's Food Shop, The Messenger, December 20, 1946

Yvonne's Beauty Salon, Eastern Hills Journal, December 19, 1973

    I hope you enjoyed this look back at the Fairfax businesses of Christmas past and wish you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!