Clyde

By Tiffany Willey Middleton and Gene A. Smith

Clyde is a community located in northwest Ohio, less than one hour southeast of Toledo, with a population of approximately 6,500 people. In many ways, Clyde is a famous small town--it has been launched into the national spotlight numerous times during its 150-year history. Clyde was the home of Civil War hero James B. McPherson, political cartoonist James Albert Wales, author Sherwood Anderson, and World War II hero Rodger Young. The images in this volume provide windows into Clyde's storied history and offer glimpses of the everyday moments shared by its citizens.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Aug 28, 2017
• ISBN: 9781439661987

Tiffany Willey Middleton

Tiffany Willey Middleton grew up in Clyde and graduated from Clyde High School in 2000. She studied history at Capital University and Case Western Reserve University. Middleton is the coauthor of Clydesdale Motor Truck Company: An Illustrated History, which tells the story of the Clydesdale Motor Truck Company that existed in Clyde from 1917 to 1939.

Book preview

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INTRODUCTION

This is a book about Clyde, Ohio. Clyde is a community located in northwest Ohio less than one hour southeast of Toledo and two hours northwest of Columbus. At the time of the 2010 census, the city’s population was approximately 6,300 people. This is also a book of postcards, the distinctive pieces of mail that appear in mailboxes around the world and have come to inspire collectors. Most of the postcards in this book span a time period between 1900 and 1960 and provide a window into the buildings, homes, and everyday life in Clyde during the first half of the 20th century.

The city of Clyde was incorporated as a village in 1866. The first documented settler was Jesse Benton, who settled on land in the present-day city limits in 1820. In 1827, the Western Reserve and Maumee Pike (now US Route 20 or McPherson Highway) was built as an early road in Clyde. Clyde first developed as Hamer’s Corners along this route at its present-day intersection with Maple Street. It was named after William Hamer, who operated a tavern or hotel—or both—at the intersection. The name Clyde was adopted in 1852 after being proposed by O.P. Woodward, who had lived in Clyde, New York, which was named after the famous Clyde river and valley in Scotland. That same year, the first railroad lines were built in Clyde. Two lines intersected slightly west of Hamer’s Corners near the present-day intersection of Main and Railroad Streets. Soon, hotels, a stagecoach service, and Clyde’s downtown developed around the railroad. The rail lines—the Toledo & Norwalk Railway (later the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern line) and the Sandusky City & Indiana Railway (later the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago, and St. Louis, or Big Four line)—connected the city to the rest of the country and facilitated national and global trade options for local manufacturers. By 1900, when the postcards in this book began to appear, Clyde was a vibrant community with homes, schools, manufacturers and businesses, hotels, and entertainment venues. The 1908 city directory promises:

We have good homes, good churches of the leading denominations, progressive schools of increasing efficiency, a magnificent Carnegie Public Library, a new State Armory, a well established lyceum course and various religions, fraternal, literary and philanthropic organizations that minister well to the higher needs of our community life.

At that time, Clyde’s population was approximately 3,000, which the city directory describes as a people classed neither as rich nor poor, but mainly as thrifty, prosperous citizens, producing for the community, providing for their families, and enjoying life under pleasant environment. The postcards in this book showcase the community described in the 1908 city directory and show how it evolved over the next 50 years.

Postcards really started to appear in the United States in 1861, after Congress authorized postal legislation that allowed privately printed cards weighing one ounce or less to be sent in the mail. That year, John Charlton copyrighted the first postcard in the United States. Souvenir postcards were popular at events like the 1893 World’s Fair, which inspired collectors, if not senders. It was 1907, however, when the postcards modern people recognize really began booming in popularity. That year, Congress authorized the split back on postcards, which allowed for space for a note on the left side and for a mailing address and postage on the right side. Prior to this authorization, only the mailing address and postage could be included on the back of a postcard, so any note to the recipient had to be written across the image or in the margins on the front side.

This simple change helped to launch what historians and collectors recognize as the Golden Age of Postcards. In 1908, the US Post Office processed 700 million postcards; in 1913, that number increased to 900 million. This golden age extended to approximately 1915, when World War I led to a decrease in postcard mailing. After the war, the mailing of postcards picked up again, but it never reached the same popularity as during that earlier time period.

Much of the ubiquity of postcards stems from their subject matter: anything. In addition to mass-produced printed designs, postcards became as easy to print as modern-day personal photographs, and in many cases, they were modern photographs. In 1907, Kodak introduced the real-photo postcard and offered a service that allowed film to be printed on postcard stock. Real-photo postcards became incredibly popular, as anyone with a camera could print and mail them. Professional postcard photographers documented anything they thought people might want to remember. Postcard historian Fred Bassett explains, Whenever America paraded or celebrated anything, the postcard photographer was there. He was also there when disasters—fires, floods, earthquakes, train wrecks—occurred. The practice of documenting even the worst aspects of society on a postcard was not uncommon. In his 1965 song Desolation Row, Bob Dylan sings, They’re selling postcards of the hanging in reference to postcards that were printed following a lynching in Duluth, Minnesota, in 1920. Postcards became a medium for documenting the extraordinary, the newsworthy, and the everyday. Everyone mailed them—from the rich and famous to the poor and anonymous.

However, postcards were more than their images; they were a leap into the 20th-century world of wider mass communication in much the same way that social media is today. Suddenly, anyone could share a photograph or image with anyone else simply by dropping a card in the mail. Critics saw the culture of communication changing and bemoaned the decline of the letter in favor of a postcard. They also remarked on the use of abbreviations, which became increasingly common as people squeezed greetings onto the small cards. This line of complaint was not so different from contemporary ruminations on the effects of abbreviated communications in texting or social media. Postcards also had an instant quality about them and appeared more dynamic—and sometimes even more elegant—than a letter, because they presented the recipient with an image in addition to text.

The postcards of Clyde featured in this book are organized into six chapters. The first chapter covers famous subjects, including James