EAST
FAREWELL NEWS
Thursday, June
30, 1955 Vol. C761
LOCAL NEWS
CAT HOUSE CLEANED
OUT
East Farewell – It seems that East farewell had it own cat
house. Not the brothel type, a real cat house. The house located at 346 S.
Maple was owned by Mrs. Elvira Dawson for at least 50 years. Mrs. Dawson, nee
Elvira Buhl, was born and grew up in the area. She married Bill Dawson in 1914.
Mr. Dawson was killed in WWI in a gas attack. Mrs. Dawson never remarried but
remained in town, living in the house that they had purchased before Bill left
for the war.
Elvira was well
known in town and well liked by her neighbors. She volunteered at the
elementary school for many years and also was active in her church as a
visiting care helper. While Elvira was never blessed with any children, she did
have a very loving heart and was a very compassionate person. It is a wide
spread rumor that Elvira started taking stray cats around the 1930’s but that
has never been proven. Regardless, at some time long ago Elvira started taking
in stray cats and for a while everything was fine. The cats were happy and
Elvira was happy. The neighbors didn’t mind because the cats kept the mice and
voles at bay. Unfortunately, Elvira could not stop taking in cats and the cats
kept coming, as if there was some sort of cat network, more cat showed up at
her door and she took in, each and every one.
Around 1952
neighbors started to notice a change in Elvira, she was keeping to herself more
and starting to withdraw from her community activities. Neighbors would only
see her when she was out buying cat food. Folks from her church would stop by
and when her yard needed sprucing up neighborhood teens would all pitch in to
cut the grass and hedge and shovel the snow in the winter. She would offer to pay
them but they always politely refused. Towards the end she would invite people
in to the house but they would always decline because of an odor that would
seep out whenever she opened the door. The cats were taking over. Late 1953
Elvira was stopped by the local police wandering around the Lakefront Plaza in
a daze. She was taken to the local hospital evaluated and released. Since she
had no known family, neighbors and friends started taking responsibility for
her but were only able to do so much. In November of 1954 the Animal Protection
Unit of the State SPCA attempted to round up the cats and clean up the house.
Elvira did not make any attempt to stop the roundup but did express regret that
the cats had to go.
People in the
neighborhood had not seen Elvira for the past two weeks and attempts to reach
her were unsuccessful so the police were called on Monday. Police entered the
house and found Elvira sitting in her favorite chair, dead. “It looks like see
just died in her chair, no foul play was indicated. She just died,” said
Officer Culp, one of the officers to enter the home, “I honestly think she may
have been overcome with the fumes. I almost passed out when we went in there.
It was horrible.”
The cats that
were in there, which may be as many as 50 cats, are being removed by the SPCA.
The cats will be taken to a kennel, examined, vaccinated and put up for
adoption. Adoptions can be arranged through the SPCA. It is not known what will
become of the house. Neighbors feel the only way to get rid of the smell is to
tear it down. Town Zoning will make that decision at a later date.
Services for
Elvira Dawson will be held a Holy Redeemer Church on Saturday. She will be
buried in the church’s cemetery after the service. The service and burial are
being paid for by the church.
Elvira
Dawson with some of her cats circa 1946
SPORTS
TRAVELERS MEET YOUNGSTOWN
STEELERS FOR THE FIRST TIME THIS SEASON
Youngstown – The Travelers came into Youngstown after a loss to
a tough Mountain View and got back on the winning side by beating the Steelers
5-3. This was the first time the Travelers and Steelers met and there are three
other meetings this season. The Steelers have had a good record this year, 7-3,
but they were not good enough this outing to beat the Travelers. The game was
played in spite of a light drizzle but the temperature was in the 60s.
The weather did
not affect the Travelers offense that started off with two runs in the first
and added two in the third. The first two runs came with a leadoff double by
Ralph Francis followed by a single by Dale Dunham then a two run double by
Johnny Cloos. The second two came from the bottom of the order with singles by
Artie Archibald and Billy Sweet and then a long double by Francis, who went three
for four on the day. The final score came in the ninth with a solo homer by
Joey Brown, his eighth for the year.
Pitcher, Billy
Green did a fine job on the mound. He allowed nine hits, three runs but struck
out ten and only walked two. The Steelers were able to tag Green in the fourth,
fifth and seventh but never really got any momentum going. Scoring for the
Steelers was Rees, Vogel, and Williams. All three runs came on doubles followed
by singles.
The Travelers
finally come home next week with a grudge match with Riverview and their ace,
“Big Jim” Norbert. The game begins at 2:30 with fireworks after the game.
NATIONAL NEWS
JOHNSON SUFFERS HEART ATTACK –
SHORT STRIKE – WHITMAN SAY U.S. CAN’T DANCE
Senator Lyndon B. Johnson, Majority Leader of
the Senate suffers a severe heart attack. He’ll be unable to return to active
duty at this Congress session. The serious illness of is causing concern and
many believe he may not be able to act as leader next year - a presidential
year.
The shortest steel strike begins and
ends this week. A strike of 60,000 steel workers was called with a shutdown of
mills. Workers will get 15 cents an hour pay increase.
Bandleader Paul Whitman can be seen on
the summer series called “America’s Greatest Bands,” a Saturday night CBS-TV
summer replacement for the Jackie Gleason hour. Observes Whitman about kids and
music today: “the kids of today just aren’t doing much dancing. Over a period
of years, the big bands built up the singers and finally taught the people to
quit dancing. That is, most of them did. There were few exceptions. Guy
Lombardo has always done his part for dancing.”
No comments:
Post a Comment