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Windsor Landmark Is 100 Years Old

By Marian Alderman

Windsor – A well-known Windsor landmark is 100 years old.  It has withstood the test of time, a fact that would please the women who struggled to raise funds for its erection in 1907.

The women belonged to an organization called The Ladies of the Monumental Society, and the century-old landmark is the Soldiers and Sailor’s Monument in the cemetery on Noble Road in Windsor.  No records have surfaced indicating how much money the ladies had to raise or how they raised it, but there are pictures of the Day of Dedication.

These pictures can be seen in the Ray Fry Collection of Windsor photos at the Grand Valley Public Library.  There is no identification of persons in the one photo, but it is safe to speculate that the Ladies of the Monumental Society are pictured in their Sunday best for a very important day in Windsor in 1907.

(This writer can identify one couple.   My maternal grandmother, Katherine (Kohler) Askew, surely was a member of the Ladies of the Monumental Society.  She is front and center on the right of the Soldiers and Sailor’s Monument in a group of twenty people, and back of her is a very tall gentleman who was my grandfather, Christopher F. Askew. Every lady has on a fancy hat, and all men are wearing hats, also.)

The other photo is a panoramic view of the east part of the center section of the cemetery with the tall monument under a large tarp with flags flying from it in a stiff breeze.  There was a large crowd around the monument, and umbrellas are plentiful, whether to ward off sun or rain is not known.

The photo shows a section of Noble Road with several horses and buggies.  There is an iron fence – probably the same one that is in the cemetery today along Noble Road – but the monument appears to be some distance from the road.  Presently, the monument is just a few feet from the road, so perhaps the road was widened after vehicular traffic replaced the horse and buggy.

A month ago, this writer saw former Windsor resident John Johnson, now of Leroy, at a pancake breakfast at Camp Whitewood.  The conversation turned to Windsor landmarks, and Johnson expressed an interest in the Soldiers and Sailor’s Monument.  When told it was 100 years old this year, he left to take pictures of the monument.

A few days later, Johnson brought twelve pictures, three from each side of the monument.  They reveal the names of military personnel from Windsor in wars from the Revolutionary War to the Spanish-American War in 1898.  Johnson found the most interesting inscription on the upper base of the west side: “Soldiers of the Rebellion Living in Windsor, October 1, 1907”, followed by eight names beginning with Adkins and ending with Ritter.

With Johnson’s interest, it seemed fitting to recognize the 100^th anniversary of the landmark.  A letter went out to the Board of Trustees of Windsor Township asking for a proclamation to observe the year as there is no known month and day of the dedication of the monument.

At the regular meeting of the township trustees on Monday, December 10, Jim Plizga, Chairman of the Board, read the letter and made a motion to proclaim 2007 as the 100^th Anniversary of the Soldiers and Sailor’s Monument in Windsor Cemetery.  The motion passed unanimously.

The Ladies of the Monumental Society would have been proud, and present residents of Windsor can share in that pride.  May that landmark  stand tall in 2107!

Update: October 10 and 11, 2009 – At the Covered Bridge Festival observance on the grounds of the Windsor Mills Historic Church, a visitor to the church/museum on Saturday was former Windsor resident, Carl Kramer, from Warren..  He told me that he had a large picture of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument at the Windsor Cemetery with a group of people who were identified on the back of the picture.  As Carl described it, I realized it was identical to the picture from the Ray Fry Collection, so I asked him to bring it to Windsor.  He returned on Sunday with the picture and other pictures that he had from the collection of his grandparents, Carl and Bessie Alderman who had lived on Noble Rd.

 

The names on the back of the picture are as follows, left to right:

AMOS KING, MAY RAWDON, EUGENE RAWDON, ELIOS RAWLEY, ERASTUS GRISWOLD, EMMA KNAPP, F. M. BLANCHARD, H. CLOUGH, LIBERTY KENT, JAMES ACKWORTH, ORISMAS HAMILTON, FAY ALDERMAN, LUCY BLANCHARD, AXIE (?) LEEWORTHY, LIZZIE KING, ELOIS BROOKS, CATHERINE ASKEW, JOHN POORMAN, EMMA KENT, CYNTHIA ALDERMAN, ELIN CLOUGH, HENRY KNAPP
Written by J. W. Hues, Oct. 8, 1919

(My grandfather, Chris Askew, is not named.)

–Marian (McCalmont) Alderman

WW II MILITARY FORCES from WINDSOR, OHIO

 

These names were displayed on a simple glass-covered board erected in the park where St. Rt. 534 and Noble Rd. merge.  There are no records indicating who made the board or when it was erected or removed.

ALDERMAN, MARLAN

ARMSTRONG, E. G.

ARMSTRONG, NEWTON

BARTA, JOSEPH

BARTA, MILO

BARTA, RUDOLPH

BARLETT, JOHN

BAZILUIS, PAUL

BELLOWS, DURWOOD

BENE, JOHN

BROWN, ROBERT

BRUGMAN, CHARLES

BRUGMAN, EDWARD

BURLINSKI, WALTER

CLARK, ARTHUR

DAVIS, ELMO

DOMOKOS, ELMER

DOMOKOS, MARTIN

ERNI, JOHN

EVIN, ADOLPH

EVIN, EMIL

FLETCHER, ROBERT

GIRMAN, GEORGE

GIRMAN, THOMAS

GREEN, HOWARD

GUTKOWSKI, THEODORE

HAVEL, METHIAS

HEGYI, ROBERT

HILLMAN, NORMAN

HILLS, EDWARD

HINES, WALDEN

HOLLEY, CARL

HOLLEY, EUGENE

HOLLEY, FRANK (KIA)

HOWES, ERWIN

HOWES, THAYNE

ISBESTOR, RALPH

JONES, RALPH

KALISTER, ANDREW

KINNEY, HARLAND

KLIMA, JOSEPH

KLIMA, RICHARD

KRAVACSN, ANDREW

KRAVACSN, MICHAEL

KUCHTA, JOHN

KUCHTA, MICHAEL

KWARCIANCY, PETER

LAWRENCE, KENNETH

LEOPOLD, ERNEST

LINDENMEYER, TONY

LINDOW, ALLEN

LINDOW, JAMES

LOOMIS, JAY

LOOMIS, RAYMOND

LOOMIS, ROBERT

MAJKA, STANLEY

MAURIC, FRANK

MAURIC, JAMES

MAURIC, JOSEPH

MCCALMONT, DONALD

MEREDITH, CHARLES

MERSERCH, STEVE

METLICKA, ALBERT

MIHALSKI, JOHN

MIKLASIEWICZ, HENRY

MILLER, ROBERT

MINICK, RICHARD

MOSS, FORREST

MOTYLEWICZ, ALBERT

NESTERAK, STEPHEN

NOBLE, EDWARD

NODERER, CHARLES (KIA)

NODERER, MARGARET*

NODERER, RICHARD

PAVLOSKI, JOSEPH

PLECHA, BERNARD

PLIZGA, JOHN

PLIZGA, JOSEPH

PLIZGA, MICHAEL

POPOVIC, GEORGE

RHODES, HUBERT

RHODES, RAYMOND

RODGERS, ARTHUR

RODGERS, KENNETH (KIA)

RUFF, MERLE

SHULTZ, EDWARD

SHULTZ, GEORGE

SHULTZ, HARRY

SHULTZ, SAMUEL

SCHWIND, CHARLES

SCHWIND, CLIFFORD

SHUMINSKI, JOHN

SHUMINSKI, MICHAEL

SHUMINSKI, STANLEY

SMITH, FRED

SMITH, WALTER

SOLOWEYKO, ALEX

SOLOWEYKO, WILLIAM

SOPCZAK, JOSEPH

SPARENGA, ANDREW

STEARE, THEODORE, JR.

STEARNS, ELTON

STEARNS, JAY (KIA)

STEFFENS, HENRY

STEPANEK, WALTER

STEPPIN, MARY**

STEPPIN, STANLEY

SZABO, FRANK

SZABO, GEORGE

SZABO, LOUIS

SZABO, STEPHEN

VACI, JOSEPH

VOBORNIK, RICHARD

VORT, RICHARD

WATERS, ALLEN

WATERS, KENNETH

WHEELOCK, JOHN

WHITE, CARL

WHITE, DUANE

WILDMAN, EDWARD

ZENCOE, GEORGE

ZENCOE, JOHN

ZENCOE, JOSEPH

ZENCOE, MICHAEL

ZIGLI, PAUL

*Margaret Noderer was an Army nurse; **branch of service unknown

The alphabetical arrangement of the names on the Windsor Honor Roll contained some errors.  This listing corrects errors, and adds a missing name, Alex Soloweyko.                                                                                        

Compiled by Marian (McCalmont) Alderman, March 5, 2005

June 6, 2005: Information from Kenneth Waters included these names not on the board in the park:  Kenneth Lawrence, Raymond Loomis and Mary Steppin.  List updated.

March 3, 2007: Further research revealed these names:  Stanley Shuminski, Walter Stepanek, and Richard Vobornik.  April, 2007: update: Milo Barta and Ernest Leopold. Carl White added Nov.8, 2009. Ten names have been added to a list of 115 names found in a snapshot of the Windsor Honor Roll dated March 30, 1944. There are now recorded 125 names of men and women from Windsor who served their country in World War II.