It’s been a difficult for Chardon, when three students were killed in a shooting at Chardon High School.  But the city of 5100 people in the city came together after that tragedy.  It’s that kind of spirit that organizers of its bicentennial celebration are looking to highlight this weekend. 

We sat down on the town square with Bill Jackson, Madelon Horvath, and Carol Kovac.  They helped organize a play about Chardon’s history that will premiered this Saturday in Township Park.  Kovac admits it's a little like a local version of Our Town . .

 “We’re taking a lot of stories that are the arc of history.  Chardon is a pretty special town.  This year,  As most people know, we had a terrible tragedy that happened here and the community pulled together in a way that was pretty extraordinary. As we are learning more about history  it’s not really extraordinary at all.   It’s like something people in this town have done for generations. That’s the story we want to tell; what our scrip writer called “the emotional journal of this community.”

They are not telling the story of the shootings but will focus on the past and the character and values of the town.  One major story is how the townspeople showed their resileience after a devastating fire of 1868 destroyed the downtown.  They decided to rebuild.

Wars always provide milestones in history but the Bicentennial Committee used personal letters and journals to recall Chardon’s past.   Horvath, the long time high school theater director, will direct Saturday’s play.  She says one scene on the Civil War comes from the journal of Captain Byron Canfield who was wounded in battle. Madelon Horvath...

 “He actually got a scalp wound. The bullet grazed the top of his head.  His sergeant came back with a hilarious rejoinder, something about not being able to find any brains in there.  “

World War II is recounted through the letters that Chardon soldier Ward Baptie wrote home.   He kept news of his more serious wounds out of the letters he wrote to his wife Ruth.  Reading through the little stories has been an eye opener for Kovac . .

“The small stories are sometimes the most interesting stories,  the stories that people haven’t told over and over again.   Our goal is that people will walk away and say ‘gosh, I never knew that.’”

The Interurban

One surprising element of Geauga County history is the Interurban Rail Road.  Bill Jackson says in 1900 people could ride privately owned electric trains from downtown Cleveland out to the surrounding counties. 

“Chardon was connected to Cleveland through this Interurban that ran through Gates Mills.  It came right up onto Chardon Square and circled the lower park.  It really opened up Geauga County to a number of things – quicker communication and travel to Cleveland. “

Up to that time Chardon’s connections were to Painesville and to Warren and Youngstown because that’s where the steam trains went.  If you know what to look for you can still see remnants of the Interurban corridor today.  It went out of business in 1925 with the rise of the automobile.  In fact, Chardon hosted uphill car races in the early 1900’s where many Cleveland-made cars competed. Kovac says some were steam powered...

 “The reports that I read said more than 5,000 people came from Cleveland and elsewhere to attend this event.  They lined the windy dirt road of Stukey Hill with their picnic baskets and sat in the fields to watch the race happen.  “