Happy Buzzard Day!

Yep, the Day of the Dead has nothing on March 15th, which is Buzzard Day in the township of Hinckley, Ohio. According to the Hinckley Township website, the vultures for which the area is known were supposedly drawn to the area by the carcasses and waste left behind after the Great Hinckley Hunt of 1818. The 1818 hunt was touted by organizers as "a war of extinction upon wolves and bears." Ah the early 19th century was such a gentle and civilized time!

Though this story has a morbid appeal, I like the idea that the citizens were visited by a plague of carrion birds after their bout of senseless killing, it's not likely the hunt drew vultures to Hinckley Township. It's equally unlikely that the alternate legend involving the local Wyandot tribe's hanging of a woman for witchcraft at the Big Bend of Rocky River created a supernatural beacon to which the undertakers of the bird-set hearkened. Anyone who lives in the Midwest, especially in areas where there are high bluffs or bodies of water around which thermal currents build, knows the buzzard is as much a part of the local fauna as the Sycamore tree is the flora. Though they may have been more noticable after the 1818 hunt, it's doubtless buzzards were living in Medina County around Hinckley Township long before settlers entered the area.

What would lead to March 15th being declared Buzzard Day, though, was an article that ran in the Cleveland Press on February 15,  1957. A Cleveland reporter had heard the local folklore that buzzards returned to Hinckley without fail every March 15th and he penned a piece on the subject. The story stoked the imaginations of local naturalists, ornithologists, and other reporters, beginning speculation on the predicted return of the big, black scavengers. When the birds made their appearance exactly as predicted about 9000 tourists headed for Hinckley.

Today you can celebrate the return of the vultures with a pancake breakfast hosted by the Hinckley Chamber of Commerce, see exhibits put on by the local elementary school, and buy crafts commemorating the return of the buzzards. Hey, Capistrano has its swallows, Ohio has its vultures.

Winton the King of Automobiles

This ad for the Winton Motor Carriage Company could fall into the Everything New is Old Again category. Those of us who look at consumer ratings online will be familiar with the sort of fake, hyperbole-filled testimonial featured in this ad. Doubtless Winton's ad agency selected the name Mr. S. L. Schoenfield for its perceived appeal to the target market. "People trust the name Schoenfield," I hear them saying. "Besides, who would think we faked that name?" The ad comes from the October 1904 issue of The Auto Era magazine and, like most automobile ads of its era, isn't very interesting to look at. The Winton itself shows the link between carriage making and automobiles, looking as if it could be pulled by a pair of horses without drawing so much as a second glance from passersby.

As indicated in the ad, the Winton Motor Carriage Company was a Cleveland, OH based manufacturer of early automobiles.The founder, Alexander Winton, immigrated from Scotland in 1896 and decided to change his bicycle business to the manufacture of single-cycle automobile engines. Winton's first cars were hand-built and included gas lamps and B. F. Goodrich tires.

The Winton came to the American market during a time when the public was skeptical of automobiles. To prove the durability of his product, Winton performed an 800 mile road test driving from Cleveland to New York (an accomplishment in the era before highways or even paved roads). In 1898 Winton sold its first automobile and late that same year 21 more were sold. Interestingly one of those 21 Wintons was sold to James Ward Packard who, after complaining about the Winton's performance and being challenged to "do better", would go on to found the Packard Motor Company.

By 1899 Winton had become the largest manufacturer of automobiles in the United States with sales of more than one hundred vehicles. The Vanderbilts became investors in Winton and the following years would see a steady stream of accomplishments (including setting a new land speed record of 70mph and being the first automobile to travel across the United States). As automobile ownership became part of the American dream, competition increased and newer, trendier makers began to eat into Winton's sales. In 1924 Winton stopped manufacturing automobiles, focusing on marine and other engines. In 1930 Winton was sold to General Motors, continuing to manufacture engines (including those used in submarines). In 1937 GM reorganized the company, renaming it the Cleveland Diesel Motor Division of General Motors a moniker under which it made engines for the US Navy throughout World War II.

The Cleveland Diesel Motor Division of General Motors closed in 1962.

Death aboard the Seeandbee

Back in 1885 Morris A. Bradley established the Cleveland and Buffalo Transit Company (C&B). The company operated a popular steamship line from Cleveland, running passenger and freight service to Buffalo, NY aboard the liners State of Ohio and State of New York. With business booming, C&B added to its fleet, christening the City of Buffalo and eventually replacing the aging State of Ohio with the City of Erie which provided night service between Cleveland and Toledo.

C&B saw an opportunity in moving passengers and in the same year as the Titanic’s ill-fated maiden voyage, the Seeandbee joined the fleet and began making regular trips between Cleveland and Buffalo. In her day the Seeandbee held the title of largest and mostly costly liner on the Great Lakes. She was 485 feet from stem to stern and could accommodate 1,500 passengers with 510 staterooms and parlors over four decks. She had an elegant ballroom in which passengers could partake of music and dancing while making the crossing.

The Seeandbee operated from 1913 to 1938, maintain her reputation as the lakes as its most famous liner until, like so many Americans, she was called to war. World War II saw many civilian ships converted for military purposes, and the Seeandbee was no exception. She was converted to operate as an aircraft carrier and rechristened the USS Wolverine. Under her new name she saw service training carrier pilots for shipboard landings and takeoffs. The USS Wolverine operated out of Chicago on Lake Michigan until the end of the war and was decommissioned and scrapped in 1946.

All of this is interesting – well, at least to someone like me who enjoys digging through dusty magazines – but it’s not why I found the little ad for cruises aboard the Seeandbee so intriguing. You see, the ad comes from a 1935 issue of The Rotarian Magazine, a call for business-folk across the Midwest to spend their hard-earned salaries on a little shipboard frivolity, but on August 12, 1940 when the ship docked in Cleveland one of its passengers wouldn’t be disembarking.

Mrs. Benjamin Mozee, a retired teacher from Nome, Alaska, boarded the Seeandbee on July 24^th and, according to her sister, had in her possession a large amount of money as well as three diamond rings none of which were found in her state room. On July 31^st the battered body of Mrs. Mozee washed up on the shore at Geneva-on-the-Lake and, adding insult to the injustice that had been done to her, since there wasn’t anyone who could identify the body, she was buried in an unmarked grave.

The money and jewelry weren’t the only things that had disappeared when the ship docked. Mrs. Mozee had been attended by a maid while on shipboard. The maid was a member of the Seeandbee’s crew and had tended to her during the voyage. Investigators found that the maid had disappeared immediately after the cruise.

When Mozee’s body was identified there could be little doubt she hadn’t simply fallen overboard and drown. The body showed signs of a beating and grease on Mrs. Mozee’s palms suggested she’d been in the crew area of the ship. An FBI investigation followed, but there is no record of there being an arrest, trial, or conviction associated with the murder.