Old Lebanon Ohio Photo

This photo is of my great grandfather George Emer Bradfield's grocery store on Broadway in Lebanon about 1910.  George Bradfield was my fathers maternal grandfather.  He is the second from the left with the black bow tie.  One of his sons, Glenn is also pictured. We don't know the other folks.  Great grandpa Bradfield had been a grocer in Clarksville, Ohio for many years. He and Minnie Gray Bradfield, our great grandmother, had six children over the span of 16 years. My grandmother Irene was the oldest, then Mabel, Glenn, Guy (died as an infant), Herschel and Neil.  They decided to move to Lebanon around 1910 to give the two youngest boys a better start in life.

It's hard to read, but the back of the card says;"Geo and Glenn Bradfield, standing in front of what is now the Golden Lamb dining room. It's signed  Mrs. Nellie Perrine. We are related to the Perrines some how, but I forget just how.

George Bradfield was not a very good businessman. As was the custom in those days, people bought their groceries on credit and paid once a month. (I remember when I was a kid Sherwoods Market on St. Rt. 42 going south did the same thing).  Problem was, people didn't pay George and he wasn't any good at collecting his debts.  By the early 1920'a, he had given up on Lebanon and moved on to Dayton.  His youngest son Neil went to Stivers High School there

Uncle Herschel told of playing basketball at Harmon Hall and my grandmother worked at the Tom Corwin canning factory in Lebanon to put my Aunt Mabel through secretarial school at Miami Jacobs in Dayton.  The family history is a common one - leave the once thriving Village of Clarksville to the larger town of Lebanon. Leave Lebanon to go to Dayton. Then the depression hit and Dayton was not such a good place to be. Herschel got a job in a factory. Neil ran away from home and was a hobo until World War II brought him home and into the army.  Aunt Mabel got a job at Wright Field and kept the whole family going through out the depression.  My grandmother married my grandfather in 1919, not long after she was fired from the Tom Corwin canning factory for being as she always said "too jolly".  She and my grandfather moved to Dayton where my Dad was born in 1923.

 My grandfather was a skilled wood worker and finish carpenter. He worked for a time turning wood golf clubs for the McGregor company. When the Depression hit Dayton, finish carpenters had no work.   The family might have weathered the Depression better if it had stayed in Lebanon, but Dayton looked like a much better opportunity in the early 20's. By the 1930's it was a bust! My grandfather didn't get steady work again until the post war housing boom and by then he was in his 60's.