Kenny Libben, Curator Cleo Redd Fisher Museum

LOUDONVILLE — In the 1950s the Flxible Company began manufacturing an 11-column cigarette vending machine for the Mercury Vending Company of Cleveland. With over 50% of adults, and 75% of men, admitting to smoking tobacco at the time, cigarettes were always in high demand. With no ID required to purchase tobacco, the vending machines were […]

LOUDONVILLE — Did you know that Loudonville was once home to a small convent, located in the former Haskell Academy? In 1971, St. Peter’s Catholic Church welcomed Sister Frances Marie and Sister Elizabeth to town. The two Dominican nuns came to Loudonville from Adrian, Michigan, and were sent to assist with the Confraternity of Christian […]

LOUDONVILLE — The Loudonville Fire Department has a long and storied history, but it wasn’t until the 1950s that the EMS branch was created. In August of 1952, six members of the Fire Department were trained in the “art of saving lives.” The idea originally came to Bus Schneider, Chuck Getz, and Burley Saunier while […]

LOUDONVILLE — Loudonville native Charles Kettering invented the world’s first guided missile — then called a flying bomb — in 1918, nearly 26 years before the Germans debuted the V-1 flying bomb. Formally titled the Liberty Eagle, but affectionately known as the Kettering Bug, the aerial torpedo was capable of traveling 75 miles while carrying […]

PERRYSVILLE — Around 1917, a local council of the Junior Order of United American Mechanics (a secret fraternal organization) formed in Perrysville as The Mohawk Council. The Council (and national Junior OUAM) provided charitable activity and community service in Perrysville, but were also known as an Insurance Order — helping provide for the families of […]

LOUDONVILLE — Louis Bromfield, local author and conservationist, was well known for hosting Hollywood elites at his farm, but he was also close friends with many literary figures. During his years in Paris, Bromfield became a respected member of what was known as the “Lost Generation” of poets and writers, many of whom became celebrated […]

LOUDONVILLE — In early January, 1949, the majority of residents in Loudonville fell violently ill. Over 225 students alone were absent from schools with an unknown sickness, but the illness affected nearly all ages in the community. Soon, reports of the rumored cause spread across the county and state: Loudonville was on the brink of […]

JEROMESVILLE — Until the development and widespread distribution of the polio vaccine (1955 through the 1960s), infantile paralysis (polio) was one of the most feared and highly infectious diseases in America. Some have compared it to the panic HIV/AIDS would cause in the 1980s. But in this instance, a single case of polio could shut […]