Delphos Museum

A visit to the Delphos Canal Museum was not what I expected. People have told me that it is a nice museum to visit. Maybe it’s because they are remodeling. I don’t know that I would recommend it.

Delphos, named after the Greek word “adelphos” meaning brother, was founded in1844 on the Southern edge of the Great Black Swamp. The museum Center offers a visit to the past. It showcases memorabilia including remnants from the canal boat Marguerite.

The original Marguerite was built around 1850. It caught fire and sank in the canal at Delphos in the early 1900s. In 1987, the side rails, bottom ribs, and keel were discovered when the canal was drained for repair work.

There is a huge Catholic Church in Delphos called St. Johns. This is a picture of an old clock that used to be in the church. The clock was dated pre-1900. Before it was electrified about 1947, it had to be hand wound every eight days. The process of winding it by hand took an hour.

This model of a canal lock was made by an art teacher from Delphos. A canal lock was used for raising and lowering boats from one level to another on canals and rivers. The main feature of a lock is a fixed chamber whose water level can be varied. It is the chamber itself that rises and falls. Locks were used to make more direct routes for canal boats, and are used to make rivers more navigational. There are many types of locks. There is the staircase lock, the paired or twin locks, stop locks, drop locks, flood locks and many more.

A popular business in Delphos from 1900 to 1980 was The Delphos Bending Company. It was started by Louis Justice. It was first named the Delphos Hoop Company and they manufactured barrel hoops. In 1912 the name was changed to The Delphos Bending Company. The company started making children’s furniture in 1934. Its growth was such that by 1951 it was the largest such company in the world. The products are bent and straight wood parts, juvenile furniture, and toys. The “Teetertot Shoofly” is one example of the type of children’s furniture they produced. The “Teetertot” has various different styles and they were made from 1945 to 1979. They made many other pieces of toy furniture. In 1980 Orbritron Corporation bought the company and in 1993 the company closed their doors.

The original Lincoln Highway Route (US 30) followed much of the Main Market Route Number Three. It connected several county seats in the northern central part of Ohio. It was one of the best roadways. The main cities that it went through included Canton, Mansfield, Marion, Kenton, Lima and Van Wert. Three weeks later the county seats of Marion and Kenton were removed and Bucyrus and Upper Sandusky were added. This didn’t make some people very happy because they were bypassed. This is what led to the creation of Harding Highway. Throughout the years many changes occurred along the Lincoln Highway. Cities were added and cities were taken off. The old Lincoln Highway has since been replaced by the new four lane 30. What a much faster route than old 30.