Wadsworth Area Historical Society

09/09/2026

09/08/2026

A NEW WEEK WITH NEW PROGRAMS

In a blink of an eye, the summer season arrived and just as quickly submerged into fall. Yes, it was a season of summer fun and programs, a season of warm summer nights, and especially those summer hot blazing days.

For us fans of gardening and field planting, the vegetables are mostly picked, and the field corn will soon be ready for harvest.



But, in Wadsworth there is always something new at the Wadsworth Area Historical Society. This week we will be kicking off the new season of speakers by inviting Rick Elias from the Chippewa Lake Historical Society who will be speaking of Murder and Mayhem at the beloved Chippewa Lake area. That will be Wednesday, Sept 9, at 7:30. We expect a large crowd so be there early.

Saturday, September 12, we will be hosting a special event at the Historic St. Marks Event Center this Saturday September 12, from 10 AM till 2 PM. This event will be a Quilt Show in conjunction with Ohio History Connection.

On display will be at least 30 quilts, many of them with historical significance of the Wadsworth area. One was hand sewn in Wadsworth by the Waltz family in 1876 for the nation's centennial celebration. It was in possession of the Ross Trump family. That quilt will be hung in the sanctuary.

Another quilt worth mentioning is a hand-sewn quilt by the Disciples Church in the 1939-40 era. Many local families can be identified by the names sewn into the quilt. This is also a very large quilt that will also be hanging in the sanctuary.

There is almost every variety and style of quilts you can think of. There is no judging, and no sales. So, if you are a quilter or thinking about becoming one or even a history lover, stop by the St. Marks event center this Saturday. There is no charge which makes it even better!

There are more events to share, but I need to get this sent out.

09/03/2026

LATE SUMMER FUN THIS FRIDAY
Here I am contemplating the new month of September we have now entered to. Lots of show events coming
up in the next few weeks of which I will get in to discussing the month's calendar tomorrow.

Tonight I want to remind everyone that the 4th is First Friday. The theme this month is Family Game Night. Downtown will become a game board of sorts which will require local folks to become participants.

Meanwhile the Johnson House will be having wonderful games and crafts for the youngens, as usual.

But we can't forget the ice cream. There is still lot lots of warm weather for summer treats. We look forward to seeing you from 5:30 till 8 p.m.

And don't forget the Johnson House is open on Saturday from 10 till noon.

Tomorrow I will be talking about our upcomng Quilt Show at St. Marks Event Center coming soon. You won't want to miss it.

08/23/2026

Latest scheduled events around town and the Wadsworth Area historical Society.

August 26-30, 2026: The Wall that Heals (Vietnam War Wall) will be on display at Memorial Park next to the Matchstick splash area for 24 hours each day starting on Wed. Aug. 26 at 2:00 PM. It will parade down Broad Street starting at 1:00 PM from the high school on TUESDAY, August 25. People are encouraged to line the street down to Bidingers.

Sept. 9, 2026: WAHS meeting and program at the Wadsworth Library starting at 7:30 PM. The program is called Murder and Mayhem at Chippewa Lake presented by Rick Elias. We do expect a large crowd!

September 12, 2026: Quilt Show at St. Mark's sponsored by WAHS. The quilts will be on display from 10-2. If you have a quilt to display, please contact Roger Havens at 330-336-5548 or Megan Harvey at 330-331-4414.

October 10 - 11, 2026: Medina County Fall Foliage Tour from 12-5 each day at the Wadsworth Johnson House Museum. .There will be homemade ice cream, a bandwagon, pioneer demonstration and miniature animals. This is a free event that will be open to the public!

08/07/2026

Well tommorow is First Friday as you may well know. Electricity is in the air as the mighty Grizzlys are about to start another season but I feel the usual First Friday at the Johnson House will take a sabitical due to vacations, possibly, likely rain, more smoke rolling in from the west-so forth and so on.

I was going to do hot dogs on the grill but this hot, humid weather is not treating my MS well. So next month Roger will be back home and the trunk load of dogs may get on the grill yet.

But the museum will be open Saturday morning from 10 till noon, as usual.

05/13/2026

I'm looking at the calendar at my side realizing that mixed along with our busy days Wednesday has approached. So as a reminder we will be hosting our monthly meeting at the Wadsworth Public Library this Wednsday evening at 7:30.

Tom Weyand, Director of Wadsworth Square Foundation will discuss the Celestia Theater and the future of the Central School.

The program will begin at 7:30. Roger Havens will share any and all updates on the ongoing work at St. Marks.

Dates to remember this next several weeks are as follows:
May 25th is Memorial Day Parade.

June 23 is the annual Blue Tip Parade. Grab your favorite sitting spot and watch the large parade that has become an institution for parade fans all across our area.

We will be discussing the possibility of a fund raising bus tour to The Wright Patterson Museum this July. More news on that soon.

05/08/2026

Remember this Saturday is the herb and plant sale in beautiful downtown Wadsworth. I know there will a unique selection of gifts to browse through.

But don't forget to stop by the Johnson House Museum. We will be selling decorative potted plants from our mueum.

Along with that we have some antique chairs along with items that we already have in our own collections.

We have a double sided petroleum sign for your man cave. It was valued over $300. Also we have an old word processor that once was part of the News Banner. It weighs a ton.

Even though the sale goes on later, we will be selling only from 9 a.m. till noon, so make your way down early.

Also coming up Wednesday, May 13, at 7:30 will will have our monthly meeting at the library where we will be presenting Tom Weyand from the Celestia Theater. The theater has already gained a lot of attention in NE Ohio, and has been presenting numerous great concerts.

We have doing a lot of landscaping at St. Marks in preparation of putting in place the bricks and pavers along with the wonderful benches. Roger Havens will be filling everyone in on the progress.

The museum will continue to be open every Saturday 10 till noon.

05/01/2026

Hey, it's First Friday and soon it will be May 1st. Maybe by the time I finish writing this it will be May 1.

April zoomed past us so fast that I hardly finished April's news.

Well, May's First Friday theme is Hometown Hop so grab a warm jacket and a pair of Blue Suede shoes and twist your way to the Johnson House and buy a root beer float. Sorry no glass mugs, but the ice cream is good and the root beer is creamy. Much better than the local malt shop.

Hours are 5:30 till 8 p.m. They tell me the lawn and flowers have been mulched and the Johnson House looks nice and springy.

And yes, the museum is opened on Saturday morning. Stop by for a great tour.

Also on May 9th Wadsworth will once again be hosting the annual Flower and Herb sale. We at the Johnson House will be selling potted plants from our own gardens plus we will have a yard sale where we will selling donated goods along with museum duplicates. This will be from 9 a.m. till noon. The sales around town will run until a later times.

I will
list a few items we are selling later this weekend.

Like I said, it will likely be May 1st by the time I finish and now the big clock on the wall has struck midnight. More news soon to come.

04/08/2026

A quick reminder that our WAHS meeting is tonight (Wednsday) at the public library.

Tonight's speaker is from rhe Summit County Historical Society. The DAR had to cancel for an unknown reason.

If you have never looked into the history of the Ohio and Erie Canal you may find the speaker very interesting. Though the canal never came through Wadsworth the impact was great because commerce was able to move to the Ohio River bringing higher prices for the agricultural goods from our area. The nearest docks were in New Portage which soon became Barberton.

Later in the 1800s the rails soon took over and are still busy rails in the area. As often as the canals tried to hold on returning, the great floods of 1913 destroyed much of the locks, especially in Akron where they had to dynamite the locks to prevent Akron becoming a flattened out flood plane.

But enough of my two cents worth( as I was involved in Canal history when I came back to Ohio).

So come to the meeting tonight at 7:30 and learn something new on our local history.