They began their education in one-room school houses and lived long enough to witness the start of the
Internet age.
The 10 people honored at Sunday’s sixth annual Wood County Living History Day survived the Great
Depression by making ends meet through hard work and ingenuity.
It was a time when young families could survive on the man’s income of $7 a week, with the wife helping
by taking in washing, doing ironing and canning fruits and vegetables.
Several of those honored Sunday dedicated much of their adult lives to public service, none more than
Carroll Frank. Joshua Frank told how proud his grandfather was of being a 4-H club adviser for 70 years
and how in 1951 he helped restart the Wood County Fair. A long-time member of both the Noon Kiwanis Club
and local Odd Fellows Lodge, he lobbied both of them to become major supporters of 4-H and the 4-H camp
at Camp Palmer.
One of his 10 siblings, Homer Frank, also was honored Sunday. David Creps, a nephew, told how Homer
started Franks Sales & Service & Dixie Lunch on Bowling Green’s South Main Street in the
mid 1940s and transformed the business over the years as conditions changed. He sold Willys-Overland and
Hudson cars, along with tires and gasoline. The restaurant closed when his wife retired in 1972, after
the opening of Interstate 75 took most of the traffic away from Ohio 25. He then began a television
sales business.
It was another Bowling Green business – Harvey’s Restaurant – that was the focus of the lives of two
other honorees.
After losing all of their savings and investments when a bank collapsed, Harvey Zeigler and his wife,
Blanche Muir Zeigler, moved to Bowling Green in 1929 to open the restaurant – a family restaurant that
shunned alcohol sales while becoming a BG landmark over many decades in the days before fast food
restaurants changed the way people "ate out."
Virginia Meister, in the role of her mother, beamed with pride as she boasted how Harvey’s purchased all
of its products locally – including fresh fish from a Bowling Green resident who fished on Lake Erie.

James Swigart, portraying his grandfather, talked about how his grandparents would invite local people
without families to join in their family’s holiday meals at the restaurant. And the Zeiglers were also
known for providing free food to those who couldn’t afford to pay for meals.
Working a second job to provide for his wife and five young children proved to be fatal for John H. Yohe,
portrayed by his son, Samuel. After receiving a ministerial degree from Findlay College, Yohe served
several Church of God congregations. But he had to work other jobs as well and died in 1945, at the age
of 32, after being injured in a machine shop accident.
That left his wife to raise their young children on a widow’s pension and small injury settlement.
Laura Borger Yohe Poe, portrayed by her daughter Ruth Steele, later married Earl Poe, who also was
raising five children. They had two more children – with all of them living for a time in a four-room
house. After her second husband died she lived in a Bowling Green apartment building where she was known
as "the Bible lady," always saying that "faith was my mainstay" throughout her life.

Walking long distances to school and church was a way of life for young Merl "Pete" Dauterman,
although his father did buy a Model T when Pete was only 9 years old. Dauterman, portrayed by his friend
Donald Coppes, later farmed 650 acres in addition to driving a school bus and serving as both a Portage
Township trustee and Portage school board member.
His wife, Marciene Amos Dauterman, made all the clothes for their twins, according to Ruth Pierce, a
friend of hers through Mt. Zion Church.
Ethel Green, a retired teacher, portrayed Rose Greiner Hunter, a local reporter whose career highlight
was interviewing Rose Baird in a cell after her companions, Billy the Killer and Frank Mitchell, were
involved in a deadly shootout with Bowling Green police on April 16, 1931.
And Gene Roe, a former co-worker, told of the pride John Huber took in taking care of the hogs at the
Wood County Infirmary, where he lived for most of his life.
Living history day, held at Oak Grove Cemetery, is intended to promote the history of Wood County, as
well as the history of local cemeteries. The living history committee is part of the education committee
of the Wood County Historical Society.
Samuel Yohe portraying his father John H. Yohe who lived from 1913-1945. The late Yohe had to work to pay
for his education. After college, he became a pastor, serving several small churches. 8/30/09 (Photo:
J.D. Pooley/Sentinel-Tribune)