VIEWPOINTS A10 • WESTERN HILLS PRESS • SEPTEMBER 5, 2012
Editor: Marc Emral, memral@communitypress.com, 853-6264
EDITORIALS | LETTERS | COLUMNS | CH@TROOM
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Highwaymen had area in fear
Jim Grawe and his 1963 Ford Fairlane. THANKS TO JIM GRAWE.
Sedamsville and history Sometime in the early 1990s I acquired a 1963 Ford Fairlane in exchange for back rent owed by a tenant of mine. The red paint was faded but the body was straight with very little rust. It ran fine, although thick white smoke bellowed from the tail pipe, annoying everyone who followed within 50 yards. The Fairlane always initiated lively conversation, getting plenty of laughs at my expense. When a co-worker said it looked like the squad car on the old Andy Griffith Show I was nicknamed Barney Fife. “Is that all you can afford? Where’s the cup holders?” they often quipped. My closest family, wanting to spare me, and them, ridicule urged me to sell it. But something told me not to. It was authentic, and it represented a different time and place – a place without pretense. It needed some TLC, but that was part of its appeal that won my affection. The old car’s underdog status made it easy to root for, but I questioned, “Is it worth the time, effort and money to make it young again?” Then something interesting happened. In an act of homage I
gave it historic license plates. Suddenly, the Fairlane’s personality changed. The Fairlane, and me, were treatJim Grawe ed with respect. COMMUNITY PRESS I was no longer GUEST COLUMNIST Deputy Fife. Instead I was Sheriff Andy Taylor, someone who appreciates “the finer things” – a renaissance man. The Fairlane’s vindication of sorts came when it met a new Mercedes coupe, eager to transport the old gang to our high school reunion. We were admiring its cup holders when someone noticed the Fairlane’s historic plates; causing the curious crowd to discuss the possibilities of what it could become. The Fairlane had awakened our creative and adventurous side. Eager to experience something different, they hopped in for a knee-slapping laughter joy ride to the reunion – the Mercedes followed 50 yards behind! In a way, the historic plates served as the Fairlane’s fountain of youth that completed its cir-
cle of life. Deciding that it was worth the investment to make it young again, it became my son’s first car. Similarly the residents of Sedamsville recently paid homage to their neighborhood by allowing it to be put on the National Register of Historic Places – a distinction granted only to authentic places that are worth making young again. So, if you want to kick Sedamsville’s tires and take it for a test drive, call the Cincinnati Preservation Association. Ask to speak to either Dave or Margo and they will arrange to have you escorted to a different time and place, a place that needs some TLC, a place where you can scratch your creative itch. But be warned. The neighborhood, and the unassuming locals, will likely win your affection. And if you hear someone whistling the Andy Griffith Show theme song don’t be confused; you’re not in Mayberry, you’re in Sedamsville – Cincinnati’s newest historic neighborhood! Jim Grawe is the co-founder of the Covedale Neighborhood Association.
Highwaymen! That word incited fear among our Western Hills farmers during the waning days of summer in 1912. Fifteen farmers had been robbed as they drove their wagons to the Cincinnati markets that summer, according to a Cincinnati Enquirer accounting Sept. 26. Edward Rust, the first victim, had been held up in Covedale on Aug. 31 by a trio of robbers. Rust gave such a good description of them to police, that when Mounted Patrolman Strauder T. Jackson of Price Hill’s Ninth District saw three suspects matching the description at Rapid Run and Glenway avenues, he drew his revolver, forced the men to raise their hands, then marched them two blocks along the lonely road to a patrol call box, so we read in the Cincinnati Times-Star on Sept. 4. The trio was bound over to the grand jury which indicted them, according to the Commercial Tribune on Oct. 3. But throughout September, the robberies proliferated. The uneasiness among the farmers reached a peak when Harry Schaibler, 30, of Muddy Creek town was shot by a lone highwayman around 2 a.m. on Sept. 17 on Bridgetown Pike, according to the Times-Star report that same day. Although Schaibler’s attempted robbery occurred outside the city, Cincinnati’s Ninth District sent mounted men to search the area. They found nothing. The Cincinnati Post on Sept. 20 confirms that Cincinnati Police sent detectives to investigate the outof-jurisdiction robberies as well as patrolmen to search for suspects. Some arrests were made, however the suspects were cleared or else positive identifications could not be made. Virtually every highway robbery news story published during September described the offenders as African-American. An Oct. 2 Cincinnati Enquirer article, however, stated that “vic-
tims and intended victims of the robbers” were beginning to believe that they could Karen have been Arbogast white men disguised as COMMUNITY PRESS GUEST black. COLUMNIST “It is even hinted,” the article concluded, “that that the men may have quickly washed off their make-up after a raid and joined in the search for the ‘black bandits.’” The farmers’ uneasiness was turning to anger. When two highwaymen attempted to hold up John H. Staten on Werk Road Sept. 25, the following day’s Commercial Tribune wrote that Staten, instead of obeying the robbers’ orders to halt, fired on them instead. By late September, 450 frightened residents of Westwood, Bridgetown and Mount Airy, plus Green, Whitewater and Colerain townships, had organized a Neighborhood Vigilance Society, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer on Sept. 26. Their objective: stop the highwaymen. The robbers fought back, too. On Sept. 30, the Enquirer reported that on Sept. 29, mounted patrolman Jackson, investigating many of these cases, escaped injury from two possible highwaymen near Cleves and Bridgetown pikes when they jumped from the brush and opened fire on him. Jackson fired back, but the two escaped. Finally, we read in the Cincinnati Enquirer on Oct. 6 that James Anderson, one of Rust’s robbers, was found guilty and sentenced to the reformatory by Common Pleas Criminal Judge Jacob H. Bromwell. The disposition of Rust’s other two robbers is not known, nor do we know if any other highwaymen were captured and indicted that summer. Karen R. Arbogast lives n Westwood.
Armstrong’s leadership led him to be first on moon “This is one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.” Those were the words uttered by Neil Armstrong as he stepped onto the surface of the moon on July 20, 1969. Most people know that Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon, but why he was chosen for that honor? Why would a quiet farm boy from Wapakoneta, Ohio, who went on to become a Navy test pilot, be chosen before other more famous astronauts? Not one to seek out fame, Armstrong certainly was not famous before his selection to command the first mission to the moon. Armstrong wasn’t even among the original seven astronauts, featured in the
movie “The Right Stuff.” To be sure some of them were no longer available. John Glenn, for example, had left to pursue political aspirations. The first U.S. man in space, Alan Shepard, had been medically disqualified. However, there were still others who were older and more experienced for the job. The answer lies from a space mission more than three years earlier when Armstrong was the pilot aboard the Gemini VIII. Gemini was America’s second space program following the Mercury project. Armstrong’s Gemini craft was to dock with another unmanned drone craft in space, using a procedure which would later be essential to the Apollo program
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when the command module would dock with the lunar module. Shortly after Armstrong completed his apDaryl Smith proach and COMMUNITY PRESS docking, GemiGUEST COLUMNIST ni entered the other side of the Earth – away from radio contact with Mission Control – and began to spin without reason. They undocked from the drone, expecting the spinning to stop, but it only increased. The astronauts were caught totally by surprise as the craft began tumbling like a dryer drum, spinning nearly out of control.
Armstrong recalled Newton’s First Law of Motion: objects in motion tend to stay in motion. He analyzed the situation and reasoned that some force was needed to counteract the rotation. He deployed a small engine, used for reentry, on another side of the craft and activated the thrust in the opposite direction of the spin. The craft slowly, but mercifully, stopped its rotation and came to rest. Armstrong’s calm under stress caught NASA’s attention and led to Armstrong’s selection as the commander of the Apollo XI mission to the moon. Armstrong was shy and reserved, shunning the spotlight. He would never, for example, volunteer for “Dancing
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With The Stars” as his Apollo XI crewmate, Buzz Aldrin, did in 2010. Armstrong went on to become a professor at the University of Cincinnati following his days at NASA, then quietly returned to his Ohio farm. Good leaders maintain their composure in stressful situations and are able to make good decisions under pressure. Armstrong’s demonstration of these abilities resulted in being chosen for one of the great leadership positions of the 20th century: To be the first man on the moon. Daryl Smith, Ph.D., is the director of MSOL (Master of Science in Organizational Leadership) at the College of Mount St. Joseph.
Western Hills Press Editor Marc Emral memral@communitypress.com, 853-6264 Office hours: 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday See page A2 for additional contact information.