Van Wert County Historical Society

06/02/2026

It's Peony Festival Week... enjoy the history of peonies in Van Wert!

This article, “Flower Gardens,” was published on June 15, 1916.

‘Very few people in this city and county realize that Van Wert is becoming noted as a city beautiful, as the home of several gardens that grow the choicest and rarest collections of flowers.

‘“What a desolate place would be the world without a flower! It would be a face without a smile, a feast without a welcome. Are not flowers the stars of the earth, and are not stars the flowers of heaven?”

‘During the past week, it has been our pleasure and privilege to ramble in some of Van Wert’s beauty spots, among the most beautiful of flowers. Among the first and foremost to devote considerable of her time and attention to flowers was Miss Clara Anderson, surrounding her home on East Main St. (405 E. Main) is a large collection, some one hundred and fifty different varieties of Peonies and among them the very best and rarest found in the country, many bein imported from France as well as from the gardens of Mrs. Pleas, formerly of Dunrath, Indiana.

‘Miss Anderson is one of those quiet, unassuming persons who objects immediately when you even suggest speaking about her rare flowers in the paper. However, we cannot refrain from at least mentioning a few that we saw iin her garden one day this week.

‘By actual measurement, we saw a pure white Peony almost ten inches across and as perfect in form and beauty as the Master hand ever produced for the eyes of man to feast upon. It was the noted Jubilee Peony that is the best of them all. Then we saw fine specimens of Midsummer Night’s Dream, Rosie Dwan, and many others that space will not permit us even to mention.

‘Besides the Peonies, Miss Anderson has many other varieties of flowers not found in any other garden in Van Wert. There we found the primroses and other familiar flowers that brought to our memory our flower garden of childhood, when sisters use to vie with us as to who should have the prettiest flower bed. Miss Anderson certainly has a collection that she may well be proud of and one that will eventually help advertise Van Wert as a city beautiful. Some day we will drop back to this garden and get better acquainted with the many beauties found there.’

Source: VWCo Historical Society files; The Bulletin 6/15/1916

06/01/2026

Join Isaac for some Free Family Fun this Friday 10:00-12:00. If you have not signed up for the Brumback Library Summer Reading program, it's not too late.

06/01/2026

Helping to find history 🤔

Seed bag of the week:

Marsh Corn Hybrids

This one is close to home with the Marsh Foundation being established and still located in Van Wert, Ohio. I’m sure you all may know more about this bags history than I do, so if you would please share what you know.

06/01/2026

It's PEONY FESTIVAL WEEK in Van Wert. Joy McCleery wrote about 'Jubilee - Queen of Peonies' in her post of July 14, 2004.

'About 1867, Mrs. Sarah A. Pleas, then living in Spiceland, IN, had a backyard garden where she cultivated, among other flowers, some peonies. One spring she noticed some strange plants pushing their way above the soil. A woman's curiosity, possibly, caused her to put these plants in another part of the garden and nurse them to maturity. The strange plants were peonies, which had sprung from seed dropped by the peonies of the season before. These were unusual peonies, however. Mrs. Pleas had nevere seen anything like them.

'About 1867, Mrs. Sarah A. Pleas, then living in Spiceland, IN, had a backyard garden where she cultivated, among other flowers, some peonies. One spring, she noticed some strange plants pushing their way above the soil. A woman's curiosity, possibly, caused her to put these plants in another part of the garden and nurse them to maturity. The strange plants were peonies, which had sprung from seed dropped by the peonies of the season before. These were unusual peonies, however. Mrs. Pleas had never seen anything like them.

'It became the 'Jubilee' peony and was registered by the American Peony Society in 1908 as follows: 'Double - White - Midseason. Tall. Fragrance not notable. Very large. Long, narrow petals, symmetrically arranged about a star-like center, white with a greenish tinge, and occasional pinkish flush on outer petals. Free flowering. Long, weak stems. Good, light green, rather coarse foliage. An enormous, lacy, rather flat, fluffy flower of great beauty, but the stems are so weak it must always be staked to keep the immense blooms off the ground.

'L. J. Germann of Van Wert went to see Mrs. Pleas and brought back some plants to his Wahnfried Gardens at 723 S. Washington St.

'Up until 1915 or so, Lee R. Bonnewitz spent most of his time in the dry goods business. Then Mr. Germann showed Bonnewitz his garden, and it wasn't long until his interest had been transferred from dry goods to flowers, and very shortly thereafter began planting a 22-acre tract near his home at 677 S. Washington St.

'The 'Jubilee' was the bloom which brought Mr. Bonnewitz his greatest thrill and which started Van Wert toward peony consciousness. Bonnewitz took blooms from the gardens of Mr. Germann and Miss Clara Anderson to the show of the American Peony Society of New York, where he told the story of Mrs. Pleas and her white 'Jubilee' so dramatically to a New York newspaper reporter that his story was given more newspaper space than all the details of the peony show itself.

'The next year, 1917, Bonnewitz took 'Jubilee' to the peony show at Philadelphia and won a prize. Pictures of his 11-year-old daughter were in all the Philadephia newspapers. Headlines included: "Little Alice Bonnewitz Traveled 500 Miles to See Her Pet Bloom in Exihibit Here."

'By 1931, a list appeared in the newspaper of local gardens worth visiting. It included the gardens of C.A.L. Purmort, C.M. Purmort, L.C. Miller, H.M Gee, Dr. A.B.Hines, Harold Balyeat, Harvey Eikenbary, Dr. H.H. Holbrook, Dr. C.G. Church, Mrs. Ivy Shaw, R.J. Balyeat, Grace Fling, Frank E. Longwell, Robert A. Wilkinson, Vaughn Torrey, Paul W. Purmort, R.O. McMillen, and W.D. Williams among others.

'Commercial gardens included Wassenberg Gardens, Wassenberg Peony and Iris Farm, Auglaize Gardens, Bonnewitz Gardens, Wahnfried Gardens, and Oriental Gardens.

Flower lovers from many places showed such interest in Van Wert gardens that in 1932, the garden club decided to sponsor an annual Peony Festival. The Queen of the Peony Festival was named 'Jubilee' to honor the flower that first brought peony growing to the attention of Van Wert.'

source: Historical Happenings, Joy McCleery, 7/14/2004

photos: Lee R. Bonnewitz, Jubilee Peony, Alice Bonnewitz with Jubilee Peony

05/31/2026

Museum campus is open 2-4:30. Stop by and take in some history of Van Wert County☀️

05/30/2026

James M. Gamble, son of D.C. 'Dave' and Vinnie Gamble, grew up in Middle Point where he attended school and then finished his high school in Lima where his dad moved to. His father had hopes of his son becoming a veterinarian, but Jim was more interested in art and music.

In 1948, Gamble returned to Van Wert where he lived in his 'den' in the St. James Hotel. The 'den' was a room in the basement of the hotel, approximately 10 by 12 where Jim spent much of his leisure time 'dreaming' up his songs and poetry. Gamble had also taken a job at Continental Can Company in the winder department on 3rd shift. This job allowed him to publish his works here in Van Wert.

Jim was asked how he began song writing. He stated: My mother died in 1926 and she left an uncompleted song which I came across. I toyed with his for years and finally completed the piano score on it. It was called 'Dancing Hearts.'

His song, 'I Depended on You,' also had a story. Gamble recalled: "I gave a man five dollars once for some ideas to use in a song. The ideas didn't help much so I finally decided I would use the experiences of my own life as a setting which I did. Out of that came 'I Depended on You.'" His music was featured at the Sky Club and the Brown Derby and played over the air waves.

In addition to music, Gamble enjoyed fishing, hunting, bowling, long hikes, dancing, skating, photography, and stamp collecting. His 'den' was filled with his collection of autographed pictures of radio, screen, and stage stars.

At the conclusion of his interview with Ivan Brubaker and Paul Goodwin for the Times Bulletin in October 1948, Gamble was asked what advice he would like to pass on. "Just this," he answered, "as you travel along life's road, be kind, faithful and true. Give your best to the world and the best will come back to you."

source: VWCo Historical Society files; Times Bulletin 10/2/1948

05/29/2026

And more 📚

As the Brumback Library prepares to celebrate their 125th anniversary with the community on Saturday, FOX 55 takes a look at the library's rich history and unique character.

05/29/2026

Brumback Library history 📚

The Brumback Library is commemorating their 125th anniversary this year. It is named after a Van Wert entrepreneur whose family remains active with the library to this day.

05/28/2026

Today is NATIONAL HAMBURGER DAY. Every May 28, National Hamburger Day celebrates America's most iconic food. Americans eat over 50 billion burgers a year. In Van Wert, the Wild Brothers would have been the place to purchase cuts of beef for burgers.

August Wild, father of the Wild brothers, was born in Switzerland in 1854 and came to America at some point. He died of consumption at the age of 51 in 1906. His brief obituary reads, " He was a good citizen and had a wide circle of friends throughout the county. The funeral of August Wild was held at the First Evangelical church, Sunday afternoon at two o'clock. Burial at Woodland."

August was married first to Sophia (Kuhn) Wild (1856-1882) and then to Louise (Kuhn) Wild (1861-1920). Both wives were born in Germany and immigrated to America in 1877. Two children were born through the first marriage and seven through the second marriage. The family resided at 1014 Glenn Street. The family photo is not dated.

The six sons appear to have followed their father's footsteps. August was the proprietor of a meat market on 116 West Main Street. In the 1910 Van Wert City directory, both William (1880-1943) and Carl (1884-1969) were listed as butchers. John D. Wild (1901-1978) was a graduate of Miami University and had an active interest in education. He ran the Wild Meat Market for several years and was also engaged in farming in Ridge Township.

The Wild family's graves are marked in Woodland Union Cemetery.

source: VWCo Historical Society files; VWCF Facebook posting

05/28/2026

Pleasant View Church will be celebrating its 175th Anniversary this Sunday.

Pleasant View Baptist church met in a log school house one mile east of Wren. On May 4, 1850 they first organized as a church. Rev. D.D. Johnson was the first pastor and Charter members were Thos. Baxter, Nancy Baxter, A. Balyeat, Mrs. Ruth Leslie and Mrs. Nancy Foster.
A few years later they changed their meeting place to Wren. Called Rev. Reckard as pastor in 1873. and in December of that year changed their meeting place to the Foster school building two miles north of Wren. The first building was erected under the leadership of Rev. Reckardand dedicated in the summer of 1875. built a short distance from the present location. Bible school was organized at the time the church came into their own building in 1875. According to reports the first missionary offering was given in 1883. Interest in and offerings to missions have steadily increased up to present.
In 1911 a new brick building was built on the corner of Foster School and State route 49 under the pastorate of Rev. Jonas Vuker and a committee of men led by Win Dudley. The building was dedicated with all bills paid and a balance of three hundred dollars to take care of other things needed. In 1996 the church saw the need for more Sunday school and meeting rooms and built a new addition for Sunday School rooms, offices and a multi purpose room. In 2018 yet another building project was pursued as they built a new sanctuary and Sunday school rooms. These projects were done thanks to the Lords provision debt free. To God be the Glory!!
Through the years Pleasant View has had many pastors, but we were blessed to have 2 men serve for over 30 years each. Rev. O.B. Turner and Rev. Jeff Millay.
On Sunday the 301st of May the church will have a celebration Starting with a service at 9:00 then a catered meal after and a program following the meal. There will be a bouncy house and games for the kids. We invite the public to attend.