Heart of Ohio: Sunbury

Heart of Ohio, Sunbury

(narration by Dave Kaylor)
Like many Ohio towns, Sunbury ended up where it is because of an old Indian trail. The
Walhanding trail as it was known is today Route 3. Not long after the town was founded
in 1816 by William and Lawrence Myers on this trail, this place was built as an inn because
the trail became part of the stage coach run from Vernon to Worthington. This was a
thriving business in its day and today it's being restored by the Sunbury Library.

Now this of course is Sunbury's pride and joy, the Town Square. You don't see town squares
that much in towns in Ohio anymore you especially don't see one this big, but there's a
good reason this one is here in Sunbury because it's in the law. You see, it says in
the law that if they cut this up into pieces for development, the land has to go to the relatives
of the Myers who laid out the town. That's why this town square hasn't been touched.

The Town Square was used for lots of things including grazing cattle and horse sales. Here's
a picture of one from the 1800's, see the inn at the right? Here's the same corner today.

Sunbury really grew following the Civil War. The town hall was built in 1868. Many new businesses
followed. One notable entrepreneur was Charlie Wheaton who owned these buildings together downtown.
They say he sold just about anything including the first automobiles. By the way, he covered the
outside of his businesses with tin. It's still there today.

Sunbury's always had industry too. The two most famous, probably the Creamery, which eventually
became Nestles Coffee Factory. But even bigger in its day was the old mill owned by Gottlieb
Jacob Burrer. It stood here just on the north edge of town. The Burrer home and barn still stand,
and so does Gottlieb's grandson Carlton.

(Carlton speaking)
This was a congregation point, uh, for the farmers that would come in. They would bring their grain
to get it ground into flour and they'd be very unhappy if the, uh, flour they got wasn't from the grain
that they brought in (Dave Kaylor chuckles). Quite often they'd come in and they'd have to wait for their
grist and Grandmother Burrer would have 'em for lunch and, uh, so it was a very congenial atmosphere.
Those were the way things were back in the old days.

(narration by Dana Tyler and Dave Kaylor)
DT: This is a Thistle-Class racing boat coming out of its fiberglass mold. It's made right here in Sunbury.

DK: In fact Dana, this is only one of two places that it's made in the entire country. Now the Thistle-Class
sail racing boat isn't something you necessarily take your family out on a cruise on a (Dana chuckles)
Saturday or Sunday afternoon. This is a racing class the people that buy these boats like to race. And it
was first built back in 1945.

DT: Look at that.

DK: Isn't that something?

DT: It takes about two weeks to make one of these boats here at the Great Mid-West Yacht Company and they
make about 12 sailboats a year.

DK: Doug Laber has been making Thistle Boats for the past 12 years, 11 years here in Sunbury. And a lot more
goes into it than just putting that old hull in a fiberglass mold and bring it up and there you have a
Thistle Boat. Tradition behind all this means there's a lot of skill that goes in to it. Doug, what are you
doing right now?

DL (Doug Laber): At the moment we're fitting, uh, the rails to the hull side. There's an excess of fiberglass
in this section on the inside and we are making it fit so there's no extra bulge.

DK: Why do you spend so much attention to detail, when you're making these boats?

DL: It's gonna sound a little corny frankly, but we are interested in doing it as well as we can.

DK: If it's worth doing, it's worth doing right.

DL: Kind of the philosophy that, that I've adopted in, in making these boats, is that each of these boats is
being made as if it was the last boat we were going to make and we're going to keep it for ourselves.

DT: The Great Mid-West Yacht Company makes new sailboats and fixes old ones. This is a 24 year old all wood
sail boat, beautiful wood, it's in for repairs here.

DK: Now this is a newer boat. This is a fiberglass boat, one much like we saw coming out of the mold earlier.
And you can come here and buy 'em in Sunbury, the base price around $7,500. But by the time you get the
trailer and the cover and the sails and all the sailing hardware, you'll have about $10,000 in the Thistle.
So now that you have your Thistle, what do you do with it Dana?

DT: Well here in central Ohio at Hoover and O'Shaughnessy Reservoirs there are sailing races but beyond that,
did you know that every weekend between May and October you can find a regatta within a four hour drive of
Columbus.

(Narration by Pat Warren)
This is Sunbury's regular water supply source, the Big Walnut Creek. I'm actually standing on the intake
structure, that's the pipe through which the water is pumped. Now ordinarily this creek should be high enough
to flow over that dam. That hasn't happened since mid July. The Sunbury Reservoir is about 50 million gallons
low, notice the water mark. There's just enough water left for about 25 days. Last week it was decided the
solution to the water problem is to install a temporary water line from a neighboring quarry in Galena to the
Sunbury Reservoir. The National Guard loaned Sunbury the pipe, Nestle is paying the workers. But the job is taking
longer than expected. The emergency pumps were expected to be operational today, but the pipe is old, the segments
must be bolted together by hand. Water Department Supervisor Phil Frentsos says the pumps should be working tomorrow,
no later than next week. Still it's only a temporary solution. When the reservoir is full again the pipeline
will be dismantled.

PW: You're looking at the possibility maybe of buying that quarry?

Gene Sparks: It's a possibility, yes.

PW: But nothing is definite?

Gene Sparks: No, nothing is definite at the time, no.

PW: I guess the real point though is that something has to be done.

Gene Sparks: Something has to be done for the people of Sunbury.

PW: The sunny side to the story is this, none of Sunbury's residents have had to go without water, yet. Pat
Warren, Eye Witness News.

(Narration by Doral Chenoweth the "Grumpy Gourmet")
This is the Grumpy Gourmet today coming to you from the Heart of Ohio. We're in Sunbury. We're up here to check
on the balance of trade. Yesterday Kentucky Fried Chicken opened up a store in Beijing China of all places.
Where would you expect not to find a Chinese Restaurant in the heart of Ohio? In Sunbury on the square. Today
we're going to try Wah Yuen. This is C U Uh, everyone calls him Bobby. For the past six years he's operated
this fresh wok cookery Chinese Restaurant. Hey you want to talk Pau? No, the food's good, chicken dishes here are
the fresh specialty of the day. There are very few pineapple groves in Sunbury Ohio, but they make great use
of it here in the sweet and sour chicken. Taste, aroma, color, beautiful. We spoke with Bobby about his place
but his English is not too good so he'll answer in Chinese.

DC: Uh, We couldn't find a translator so this is probably what he said. Do you have Peking Duck?

Bobby: (speaking Chinese) "No, but if you don't get out... You'll have to duck!"

DC: Why did you go in the restaurant business?

Bobby: (speaking Chinese) "None of your business!"

DC: What is this, no chopsticks?

Bobby: (speaking Chinese) "#?!#!$!#"

DC: This is the Grumpy Gourmet bringing knowledge from the combat zone in the Heart of Ohio.

(Sunbury baseball history, William Henry Southworth, without any soundtrack)

Interview with Carol Southworth Watson and Dave Kaylor

CSW: Um all of his brothers were railroaders, and he had about six weeks working on the railroad
and he thought, you know I really don't like this. So he ran away to Portsmouth, much to his
mother's chagrin, to become a ball player. And then from Portsmouth then, I don't know, Branch Rickey
was somewhat instrumental, and he went on to the Toledo Mudhens and then to Cleveland. Well
he would clown with his boys.

DK: He wasn't a Casey Stengel

CSW: No, no he would clown with his boys, but he would be here for Spring Training.

DK: Uh Huh

CSW: So, and uh, then so far as the boy scouts were concerned, he was really perpetuating what they
were doing here.