A look back at the industrial history of Marion County is planned this week and local residents are invited to the event.
Historian Dave Claborn will present "Made in Marion: An Overview of Marion's Industrial History" at 7 p.m. Thursday at Tri-Rivers Career Center's auditorium. Admission is free.
Randy Winland, one of the organizers of the Marion County Bicentennial Celebration in 2020, said many programs like the one Claborn will present on Thursday were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic that swept across the world two years ago. Much of the programming scheduled for the bicentennial year was either canceled altogether or pared down due to the pandemic.
Claborn's professional career included 18 years as news director of WTVN-AM in Columbus, three years as executive director of the Ohio Department of Development's First Frontier Fund, 11 years as president of Marion CANDO, one year as vice president of marketing and communications for The Missouri Partnership, and several years as director of development and community relations for The Ohio State University at Marion. He is now retired and lives in Marion with his family.
Much of what will be presented in "Made in Marion: An Overview of Marion's Industrial History" was compiled for the county's bicentennial celebration in 2020, Claborn said. The slide show will last about one hour and cover the significant happenings in Marion County's industrial history.
"A big question for me was, where do you start on Marion's industrial history?" Claborn said. "Spoiler alert - it goes back way before the 1820s. Some 'manufacturing' had to take place back in pre-history as a precedent to the things we did later here. It is a fast-moving presentation, with close to 300 slides that, hopefully, will all fit within that hour. We'll cover the major industries, like the (Marion Power) Shovel (Company) and other shovel makers. For over 100 years, about 90% of the shovel/excavator business came out of Marion."
Claborn explained that the presentation will highlight "some of the larger trends in the national and world economies that affected what happened" in Marion County.
"A couple of things that I think are interesting is, for one, the role of serendipity in forming our future," Claborn said. "If, for example, Edward Huber had not married Elizabeth Hammerle in Dearborn County, Indiana - and her brother John had not married Edward's sister Amelia, then moved to Marion - our entire history would have been radically changed.
"John and Amelia convinced Edward and Elizabeth to join them here, because of the abundance of hardwoods with which to make his hay rakes, setting the stage for the growth of Huber Industries and ultimately the Marion Power Shovel. How many thousands of people earned their livings from those two companies alone?"
The presentation will provide an overview of how Marion's economy has evolved and continues to evolve, Claborn said. It will also include some little-known facts about the county, such as how Marion's quarries played a role in the Chicago Columbian Exposition in 1893; that the Village of Prospect was once a manufacturing center for fire engines and fire boats; and that the manufacturing of automobiles, tires, early clothes washers, and pianos predated the production of clothes dryers in the county.
The Marion Area Chamber of Commerce, Marion CANDO, Made in Marion Expo, and Wilson Bohannan Lock Company will each have displays set up in the auditorium on Thursday evening. The Marion County Historical Society is sponsoring the event.
Email: ecarter@gannett.com | Twitter: @AndrewACCarter