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Michael D. Pitman reports about Butler County, Ohio, politics, county government, countywide issues and Butler County people just like you for Cox Ohio Publishing (including the Hamilton JournalNews, Middletown Journal and several weekly papers in Butler County). He wants your suggestions and questions for more news stories. Leave a comment for him here or e-mail Michael at Home > Blogs > Butler County News and Issues > Archives > 2009 > March > 03 > Entry
And the safe door swung open
Dean Swartz sat cross-legged on the floor in the middle of a dozen breathless onlookers. The only sound was the rattle of the safe’s dial as Swartz turned it, and an occasional click as it settled into place.
The contents of the safe were a decades-old mystery. The concrete and steel time capsule was recovered from the rubble when the Reily Twp. fire house burned down in 1967. It has sat in the township community center ever since.
No one knew whether anything was inside. Township records from 1943 mention a combination that didn’t work; at that time, the fire house was the town hall.
Charles Deneler, 75, was the last one to see it open. He said the township clerk used it, and it sat behind the furnace suspected of burning down the building.
Swartz, who had done security work for the Air Force and General Electric, read in the JournalNews about the safe, and promised he could break in.
Tuesday morning, March 3, the assembled residents’ confidence in Swartz began to waiver.
“I don’t think it will open,” said one man. A woman hushed him, urging him to think positive.
Then with a click, it swung open on its hinges and everyone pushed in to see. On the back of the door was a painted rose with the words “Hall’s Patent.”
Inside, yellow papers bundled with pink thread were neatly stacked. Twp. Trustee Tim Miller carefully unwound them and thumbed through township records from a century ago.
There were receipts dated 1907. An Ohio Farmer’s Insurance policy dated 1919 on the building that burned down; the policy was for $3,000 and had cost $75.
A book apparently listing local tax rolls in 1919 listed Miller’s grandfather, Otis Miller.
“We had no clue,” marveled Twp. Trustee Dennis Conrad, leafing through the forgotten records.
He said the documents will be an asset when the township starts assembling its museum later this year.
“Our historical society is going to go crazy when they see this stuff,” Conrad said. “We’re going to donate the safe to the museum.”
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By donate japan earthquake one
March 14, 2011 10:48 PM | Link to this
Where can I donate to assist Japan? I’m so unhappy about what took place in Japan with the earthquake plus tsunami and I really want to assist them by simply donation. Does anybody know an internet site or anything where one can donate to assist Japan?