Written by Evan Engelhart

After being owned by the Carroll Brothers for some time, the building was converted into a duplex, then remodeled again into a single dwelling purchased in 1970 by Betty Buhrow.  
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In 1999, when the Lakeside Association was starting to expand the south parking lot, they bought Buhrow’s house.  Lakeside sold the house to a contractor who moved the house in 2000 to the lot at 640 Oak Avenue. So, the building that started out as a Methodist Chapel in 1860 is located in Lakeside today as a single family cottage. 

Stone School House  Built 1912, closed 1956. Still standing today.

By 1912, Lakeside decided to consolidate all three schools (elementary, intermediate, and high school), leading to the construction of the school house built of native limestone from the quarry.  The school housed six classrooms, for 1st through 12th grade.  Almost from the beginning, the building was overcrowded.  It was used for grades 9 to 12 for only 11 years, when current day Danbury High School opened on Route 163 in 1923.  
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From 1923 until spring 1956, the stone school building served primary grades school on the first floor and intermediate grades on the upper floor. The grass circles on the school grounds are remaining indications of the original merry-go-rounds used by the children. 
In September 1956, all Danbury Township public school classes were consolidated following the addition built on the south side of the high school. Lakeside was now without a public school on its grounds for the first time since 1883. 

Fred enlisted in the U.S. Army aviation corps in 1917, after graduation from OSU and received pilot training with the 27th Aero Squadron in Toronto before being sent to France in January 1918. On July 20, 1918, during the Chateau-Thierry campaign, Norton led a patrol of eight American planes over the German lines in the Toul sector. His command gave battle to nine enemy planes. Both guns in Norton’s plane jammed at the beginning of the fight but he stayed in formation. During the engagement, he was attacked at least four times by enemy planes, but overmanuvered them and, as his citation for the Distinguished Service Cross says, “his continued presence was a great moral help to his comrades, who destroyed two of the enemy planes.” He was severely wounded by ground fire while strafing a column of German troops. Although he was able to land his Nieuport 28 behind Allied lines, it took him two days to get to a hospital in an ambulance because of traffic congestion near the Front. He contracted pneumonia and died on July 23 at a military hospital near Angiers. His last conscious act before he died was to scribble a note to his squadron, "Twenty-seventh, more power to you." Norton was then buried in France. For his acts of heroism and valor in the sky, Fred Norton was posthumously awarded The U.S. Army’s Distinguished Service Cross in 1918. 

On August 25, 1918, mourners from across the peninsula showed up to St. Joseph's Catholic Church to attend the first mass in memory of Fred Norton. Fred Norton is not only remembered on the Peninsula, but across the state as well. In Columbus stands the Norton House, a dormitorium on Ohio State’s campus that was built in 1962. From 1923 to the early 1950s stood Norton Field, the first airfield to be built in central Ohio. Norton Field was located in Columbus and served as a refuel site for US Mail planes as well as a military training location. On display at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio is Norton’s WWI pilot jacket, with the same bullet holes in the back and right arm that cost him his life. Still, not much is known of Fred’s early years and his time spent on the Peninsula. As perhaps the Peninsula’s most interesting and impressive former resident, the story of Fred Norton will continue to be uncovered for years to come. ​

Written by Evan Engelhart

John Harding Butler’s The Light and Life of Lakeside-on-Lake Erie: 1923-1948 can be found can be purchased from our online store at lakesideheritagesociety.org, or in the Lakeside Heritage Society museum store located on the corner of East 3rd and Maple Street, open during season Tuesdays-Sunday. Contact Evan Engelhart at lakesideheritagesociety@gmail.com for more information.
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Also on sale in our store, is Eleanor Durr’s Lakeside, Ohio: First 100 Years and Lakeside Lore as well as O.L. Shepard’s The Story of Lakeside.​

If you were making plans to visit Lakeside a century ago, what could you expect?

By 1920 the organization that began as a Methodist Campmeeting and family resort had blossomed into a large scale summer attraction for a wide variety of groups.

This Lakeside "On Lake Erie" program, found in the LHS Archives, offers a forty page overview of the recreational, religious, cultural and educational events scheduled for the 1920 summer.  The cover page highlights the various programs held during each week, including the Chautauqua Assembly, the School of Missions, and the Regional Conference on Temperance. 

Below are a few of the many performances, sermons, and lectures offered during the nine week season. 

At the start of December, a Lakeside Heritage Society volunteer combing through our library collection stumbled across a small storage bag containing an aged, leather-bound book and a typewritten note. Donated to LHS in the 1980s, the book "Experience and Gospel Labours of the Rev. Benjamin Abbott" had clearly been handed down for many years before finding its way into the Archives. 

The Donation Note, which has been included below, offered an incredible overview of the book's heritage. Based on the copyright date, this book is the oldest artifact found in the LHS Archives - printed more than 220 years ago! 

 "The Experience and Gospel Labours of the Rev. Benjamin Abbott
by John Ffirth
Printed 1797

Book was found in the attic of a cottage by John Gdovicak who gave it to John Wonnell for Heritage Hall. It was owned by Elizabeth Bingman, given Apr. 1 1895 to John Bingman (in one place spelled Bingham). 

Originally bound in leather, it was mended with a piece of homespun flannel from a skirt worn by the sister of Oliver Cromwell who lived 1599-1659.

Rev. Abbott was born in  1732. His parents both died, and he was apprenticed to a hatter in Philadelphia, and "soon fell into bad company." At age 40 he was converted and began to preach locally. 

He joined the Methodists as an itinerant preacher. This was a dangerous thing to do, for the Methodists were persecuted as Tories. He was ordained deacon in 1790, an elder in 1793. His last appointment was in Cecil and Kent Counties, Maryland. He became ill and returned home in May, 1795 and died in 1796.

He had kept a diary, and started to write his experiences. He gave the manuscript to John Ffirth, who added a narrative of Rev. Abbott's life, and closed with a letter by Hugh Smith. 

It is difficult to read, because the letter "f" is used instead of "s". 

It would be interested to know of the connection of the Bingmans (or Binghams) to Lakeside."