June, 19, 2000
Out of the swamp, a town emerged
By Michelle Reiter
Staff Writer
And in the beginning there was...
A swamp.
Specifically, a "malarious, disease-ridden"swamp, which is the state the Tiffin area was found in over 150 years ago..
Mayor Bernie Hohman, Finance Director Larry Clausing, James Austin and Joe Granata brought Tiffin's murky, but noble, history alive yesterday in a 15-minute skit illustrating how Tiffin became a town.
The skit was written by Heidelberg professor John Bing, and highlighted the first lawsuit heard in the Seneca County common pleas court, titled, "The Brush Dam Battle."
Hohman played Josiah Hedges, the man who founded Tiffin across the Sandusky river from Oakley, founded by Jesse Spencer (played by Larry Clausing).
While the two were always rival towns, the rival flared into full-blown battle when the Oakley sawmill's dam was destroyed by "thugs" in 1824 on the Tiffin side of the river.
What followed &emdash; at least in in the Sunday re-enactment &emdash; was a blustery exchange of threats and insults between the two men.
Hohman and Clausing were dressed up in full old-time regalia, white shirts and suspenders, and huffed vicious insults at one another for several minutes, beginning with Clausing's exclamation, "Damn you, Hedges!"
He went on to call Tiffin a town of mud streets filled with thieves and vandals, containing nothing better in infrastructure than a beer and a brothel.
The fight ended in a blow administered by the mayor to Clausing, who fell in defeat.
Although Hedges was punished, he did stand his ground and later, Clausing sold everything to Hedges and left town. Thus, in 1850, two towns became one, and the new, whole city of Tiffin was born.
Bing himself acted as narrator, and Susan Griffis sang the National anthem.
During the dedication of a time capsule &emdash; planned to have been buried at the park after the skit &emdash; it was announced that weather conditions had postponed the burial and it would take place later this week.