Herman J. Vorwerk Family

Herman Vorwerk was born on April 16, 1899, in Adams Township, Defiance County, Ohio, a son of Henry and Doretta Vorwerk. His grandparents, George and Elizabeth Vorwerk, came to America from Germany in 1849. Henry Vorwerk's history is in Volume Number One.

Herman was the seventh child in the family. He was about four years old when his father, Henry, had typhoid fever. Before Henry was fully recovered, Herman became ill with the fever and was not expected to live for several weeks. With his mother's care, he survived but was so weak that he had to learn to walk all over again.

Herman attended school in a little one room schoolhouse but could not speak English when starting school.

The school he attended was the Kunkle school, on the Adams Ridge road in Adams Township, Defiance County. The Ridge Road was a very important Indian trail that extended from Independence Hill north of the Maumee River, north easterly toward Wauseon, Ohio. Henry Vorwerk's farm was a little over three miles south of Ridgeville Corners on the Ridge Road. At the Vorwerk farm, there was a wide spot in the road and at one time there was a post office (Adam's Ridge), a store, a dance hall and the township hall that is still standing. At one time, school was held the year around at the Kunkle School. Township records about 1852 said that there were three month semesters. The teachers received $85.00 a year salary and had to take care of the janitor work as well as teach. Education was not compulsory then and some of the older students attended school only during the cold winter months. Herman's father-in-law, Herman Bostelman, also attended the Kunkle School for several months to learn to speak English. Since there were few automobiles at that time, children who wanted to go anywhere either walked or rode bicycles.

One day in 1918, Henry Vorwerk's family had visitors from Cleveland. Mrs. Herman Bostelman and her two daughters, Thelma and Erna, who were old enough to entertain boy friends, came from Cleveland to visit friends in the area. Herman Bostelman had arrived in this country from Germany and had helped Henry Vorwerk on the farm. Herman Bostelman married Emma Harms, from the village of Florida, Ohio, farmed for several years for themselves, and then went to Cleveland, but always remained friendly with the Vorwerk family. The Harms and Bostelman families are also in this book. Erna Bostelman married Louis Schnitkey, and Herman Vorwerk married Thelma Bostelman. Herman and Thelma were married on April 20, 1920.

Thelma was born in Florida, Ohio, on April 15, 1899, just a few hours before Herman was born. Herman says "she is only a few hours older than I and she makes it her business to tell everybody that she is the boss. We slept in the same bed together before we were a year old and then she kicked me in the stomach." While in Florida, her father worked for the Andrews who had a wheat and buckwheat flour mill. At that time the canal boats were still in operation and the Bostelman family saw many of them go up and down the canal drawn by mule teams of three mules to a team and two teams to a boat, one team resting on the boat while the other team kept the boat going day and night. Thelma's grandfather was a shoe and harness maker in the Village of Florida and people from far and wide came there for shoes and repairs. They even came for wooden shoes. The Vorwerk family had shoes repaired by him.

During Herman Vorwerk's teenage years, he worked for his father helping with the farming. Henry Vorwerk also had some two hundred stands of honey bees. Herman had one hundred stands of bees at one time and once got stung so many times and could see with but one eye for several days. One year, Henry Vorwerk, Charles Guhl, and Charles Schweinhagen pooled their honey crop, loaded it in a boxcar, and shipped it by railroad to Medina, Ohio, where the A.I. Root Company was located. The Root Company manufactured bee supplies and marketed honey for the grocery trade. The Vorwerks always had Alsike clover on the farm to harvest for seed and to provide a honey crop for the bees. One year, Henry Vorwerk raised fifteen acres of Alsike clover and got better than ten bushels to the acre of seed, and sold the seed for $23.00 plus per bushel. This was more money per acre than farm land sold for at that time.

After Herman and Thelma were married, in 1920, Henry and Doretta retired to Napoleon. Herman and Thelma farmed for several years and had a fine herd of purebred Jersey cattle. They were the first to grow soy beans in the area. 1925 was their last full year of farming. On January 26, 1925, they bought a quarter of beef for twelve cents a pound; on January 15, 1925, eggs were fifty cents a dozen; and they filled their Ford gas tank for seventy-five cents. A hair cut was forty cents, lunch was twenty cents, and coffee was fifty-five cents a pound. Henry Vorwerk sold the farm that year, but Herman and Thelma continued to live on it until 1932.

Herman worked the summer of 1926 driving a gasoline truck for the Purity Oil Company and was paid $30.00 a week, and Herman and Thelma saved $5.00 of his salary a week. On September 13, 1927, Herman started his own business in the oil industry in Okolona, Ohio. He put up two fifteen thousand gallon storage tanks and with a three hundred and fifty gallon tank on a Ford truck, the Okolona Oil Company was in business. In 1928, Herman and his brother, Ernest Vorwerk, purchased the Boyer Service Station on the corner of Maumee Avenue and South Perry Street in Napoleon where the Napoleon Service Plaza is now located. This business included another gas truck and we adopted the name of Home Oil Company. From then on, the business just kept on growing and the Vorwerk Brothers had bulk plants and service stations all over Northwestern Ohio, such as Defiance, Leipsic, Swanton, Malinta, Wauseon, Fayette, and Bryan. Some of these places have been closed. They marketed the famous Cities Service products.

On February 11, 1921, a daughter, Ruth, was born to Herman and Thelma Vorwerk.

Herman and Thelma left the farm home in the spring of 1932, and moved to Napoleon, to the corner of Riverview and Garden Streets. Their son, Clayton, was born on July 24, 1925, at the Heller Hospital. Son, Clarence, was born on April 18, 1920 at Heller Hospital and daughter, Alice, was born on February 17, 1930, at the same hospital. In the fall of 1922, they took a boy, Lloyd Bennett, to provide him a home. He was from a broken family in Toledo, Ohio. Lloyd lived with the Vorwerk family for several years. He was confirmed at Bethlehem Lutheran Church, on the Ridge Road near the Vorwerk home. Soon after that he went back to live with his mother in Toledo. The Vorwerk family heard nothing from him for several years. One day he came to see them and brought with him his bride, Frances, who was born in Brantford, Canada. She was also called Sally. Lloyd and Sally have a son, Richard, and daughters, Barbara and Charlene. They have all married and have families.

Ruth Vorwerk married James A. Matthews on April 17, 1949. They have two sons. James R. Matthews was born on July 5, 1951 and Tommy Matthews was born on July 21, 1955. Both are college graduates and teachers. Ruth's husband has worked for the California highway department all of their married life and now has an office in Sacramento. James, Jr. is teaching and studying for his masters at Athens, Georgia. Tommy is teaching at Sacramento College.

Clayton Vorwerk married Charlotte Eicher on August 11, 1973. They lived in Findlay for several years and now live in North Baltimore, Ohio. Charlotte is a principal of schools in Van Buren, Ohio, and Clayton helps his father in Napoleon, Ohio.

Clarence Vorwerk enlisted in the United States Air Force in 1950, went in training at Lackland Air Force Base at Lackland near San Antonio, Texas. He was then sent to Gulf Port, Mississippi, for special training. The Aero Service Company, New Orleans, needed special men for their aerial survey work and asked for Clarence. The Air Force released Clarence early from service so that he could enter this new field of work. He was sent to Liberia, Africa. Since then he has been around the world twice, and was stationed at various places all over the world. While he was stationed in Santiago, Chile, South America, he married Eugenia Rohas, or Jenny, on October 11, 1960. On his first date with Jenny, he was very much surprised. It is customary there that the mother is included on the first date and Jenny's mother did go along on the date. They live in Tempe, Arizona, where Clarence is in charge of a department for Motorola Company. Sonia, or Sammie, was born to them on January 28, 1967. Mari, their adopted daughter, is in charge of personnel at Diamonds Department Store, a subsidiary of Hudson's of Detroit. Alice Vorwerk graduated from Capital University, teaches kindergarten, and married Kenneth Gerken on October 30, 1955. Kenny has worked for the State Farm Mutual Insurance Company for many years. They lived in New Albany, Indiana, for several years and now live in Columbus, Ohio. Kenneth has an office in Columbus and is in charge of Adjustments for the insurance company. In 1959, they adopted a baby girl, Pattie, born on February 24, 1959. Carol was born on December 28, 1960. Linda was born September 13, 1962, and Tommy was born on November 26, 1964. Pattie works full time; Carol and Linda attend school and work part time; and Tommy has a paper route. Alice is teaching in kindergarten.

Herman says at this point in his history, "Mom and I do have a wonderfully nice family."

Herman Vorwerk was confirmed a Lutheran at Bethlehem Lutheran Church on Adams Ridge in Defiance County in a small but beautiful church. Thelma's folks were members of St. Martins Lutheran Church on Madison Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio. Thelma was instructed in the Lutheran faith and confirmed there. The Vorwerk children were instructed and confirmed at St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Napoleon, Ohio.

In the spring of 1964, Herman was sixty-five years old and sold his interests in the Home Oil Company to his brother, Ernest Vorwerk. Herman expected to retire but instead got into the twenty-five cent car wash busi- ness. He was the first in this new business in Northwestern Ohio, and the third in the State of Ohio. His first car wash was in Archbold, Ohio. He has sold that and is now operating two in Napoleon, Ohio.

Herman and Thelma Vorwerk celebrated their fiftieth anniversary on April 20, 1970, their fifty-fifth in 1975 and are looking forward to their eightieth birthday and their sixtieth anniversary in 1980 if the Good Lord will let them live that long. In their span of life they have seen things happen, and invented, and unbelievable progress made by present day civilization so that people are healthier and live longer than any other time on record. They were born in the nineteenth century, lived through most of the twentieth century, and the Lord willing, could live to see the opening of the twenty-first century.

Herman included many of the things that he and Thelma have seen over the period of their lives. The following, in his words, tells much of local and world happenings since their birth in 1899.

"My father bought a car in 1913. It was a six cylinder Reo and when it came off the line at the factory it was car number 72. It was really some car and we were very proud of it.

In 1915, the War broke out in Europe and we all had to register for the service. Most of the boys in the neighborhood were called into the service. On November 8, 1918, the Local Board of Defiance County mailed notice to me to appear for my physical and on November 15 for induction into service. On November 11, the Armistice was signed and what a celebration. I never had to go into service, but I still have my draft cards where I was classified 41, and the card that I received as notice to appear for a physical. I also have my draft cards from 1942.

Easter, in the spring of 1913, we had a downpour of rain for three days. No melting of snow, just rain, and there was water everywhere. The waters of the Maumee River were almost up to the courthouse in Napoleon. No one could cross the river bridge because of the high water. All sorts of driftwood lumber and small houses came floating down the stream. The village of Florida was floating in water and the lower floors of homes were almost filled to the ceiling. This included the home of Thelma's Grandfather Harms.

On July 5, 1903, daredevil, Barney Oldfield, broke all speed records by going one mile in 56 and 2/5 seconds.

On April 18, 1906, San Francisco was rocked by the terrible earthquake and fire.

On April 15, 1912, the world's biggest unsinkable luxury liner, the Titanic, crashed into an iceberg off the coast of Newfoundland on its way back from Europe on its maiden voyage and sank with 1400 passengers aboard and a crew of 800 with only a few life boats. Most of the people perished even though urgent wireless calls brought many ships to the rescue of the survivors in the lifeboats.

On August 15, 1914, the Panama Canal was opened and was the world's greatest engineering feat linking the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans.

Sufferage for women became an actuality on August 26, 1920 when Secretary Colby signed a proclamation announcing the nineteenth amendment as part of the United States Constitution.

A terrible tornado ripped through the country early on Palm Sunday, 1921. It started just east of St. Louis, crossed the country in a northeasterly direction toward Toledo, and cut a path a fourth of a mile wide and took everything with it. It barely missed our home on the Ridge Road. We had a large window broken with large hail stone. All summer I helped the victims of the tornado rebuild their barns and homes and traveled from one place to another.

Captain Lindberg landed in Paris in his aeroplane, the Spirit of St. Louis, on May 22, 1927, following the first non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean.

The stock market crashed on October 24, 1929, and the Great Depression followed.

Thomas A. Edison, the great inventor, died on October 19, 1931.

On March 2, 1932, the Lindberg baby was kidnapped.

On December 10, 1936, the Duke of York took the throne as King Edward of England relinquished the title for Mrs. Simpson.

Rogers and Post were killed in a plane crash near Point Barrow, Alaska on August 16, 1935. Amelia Earhart disappeared over the Pacific on July 3, 1937.

War was declared against Japan by the United Staes on Monday, December 7, 1941, after the Japanese bombed our military installations on Hawaii.

On Monday, May 7, 1945, Germany quit and the surrender of the Nazi forces was signed at Riems. On September 2, 1946, Japan signed the surrender terms on the U.S.S. Missouria in Tokyo Bay.

The first American Astronaut lands safely, after a successful fifteen minute flight through space, on May 5, 1961. On February 20, 1962, Lieut. Colonel John Glenn launched into orbit as the first American to fly a spacecraft three times around the earth.

President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963.

U.S. Astronaut Niel Armstrong, commander of Apollo 11, was the first man to walk on the moon on July 21, 1969.

The Ohio Turnpike was opened to traffic on October 1, 1955, and our car was the first car to enter the gates at Toledo going west to Wauseon. We stopped at the Cities Service Plaza at the Oak Openings Plaza for gasoline and were their first customer. We were driving a new Lincoln hard top and had our picture taken there.

One of the highlights of our travels was seeing the Dionne Quintuplets in their home at Calender, Ontario, in 1939.

We have visited the state of Florida several times by car. We visited Gulfport, Mississippi when Clarence was stationed there. While there we took a trip to New Orleans. On our way back home to Ohio, we were stuck in a snow. storm trying to cross over Cumberland Gap. We were lucky to find a motel. Everything was snowed in. Phone lines were down with only one line open for emergency use only.

We crossed the country several times by car to visit our daughter in California. We crossed several times by train and liked the train rides, just resting and getting acquainted with our fellow passengers. But now we always take a plane to travel.

In January, 1960, we won a Firestone Tour to Acapulco, Mexico. We arrived in New Orleans after a hectic flight from Toledo. Our plane lost its radar controls and we had to land in Memphis. It was snowing and storming down below so we circled over the city until a small plane directed and led us to the landing field.

We crossed the Gulf of Mexico by plane. The airline rolled out the red carpet and drinks were served freely with the result we never realized that we were crossing over a large body of water. After arriving in Mexico City, we had our picture taken with the group, were transported to a hotel, and after touring and sightseeing we were taken to see a bullfight. Thelma did not go but stayed at the hotel. I did not enjoy the bullfight as it was cruel and inhumane, but yet, I was glad I had seen a bullfight.

We stopped at Cuernavaca and then on to Taxco, the silver city. There we saw a herd of hogs driven right down the main street through town. We went into a place and a man made a shirt for you while you waited.

Thelma had a yellow shirt with the traditional silver buttons made for me. Everyone asked, "Where did you get the pretty shirt?" But when the shirt was washed it shrank so that it wouldn't go around me and the silver buttons rusted.

Clarence's wife, Eugenia, asked us to go with them to visit her people in Santiago, Chile. We left in December, 1958 and crossed over Columbia, Equador, and arrived in Lima, Peru where the plane dumped us off. Since Jenny is able to speak Spanish, she got us on to another plane that was run by the Chilean government. We stopped at Bolivia and then on to Santiago arriving just twenty-four hours later than expected by Jenny's family. On the day before, her whole family had been to greet us with flowers and music. When we arrived one of my bags was missing and one of Clarence's bags was missing. We never got them back as they evidently fell off of the truck transporting them back in California, but we did get paid for them.

While in Chile, we took a plane south to Puerto-Mont, the most southerly city on the western coast of the Americas, and the southern terminus of the Pan American highway. We were there a couple of days and took a bus and boat trip to the Argentina border. On this boat we met some people from McClure and Wauseon, Ohio. What a coincidence."

Submitted by Herman J. Vorwerk