TIME TRAVEL in OREGON, OHIO [take-over]
Time Travel in Oregon, OHio Week
For the MONTH of APRIL… Oregon, Ohio HISTORY is taking over! And we are starting OFF our MONTH with the help of an Oregon, Ohio Icon… Josephine Fassett and her published book: The History of Oregon and Jerusalem.
Our featured history starts us off with:
Enos Momenee
From Josephine Fassett’s Book: The History of Oregon and Jerusalem
ENOS MOMENEE’S GENERAL STORE
In the late parts of 1860, Richard Eck owned and ran a general store at the corner of NORDEN and CORDUROY Roads in Oregon, Ohio.
Mr. Eck ended up selling his stock to Enos Momenee, who owned a frame building at the corner of Big Ditch and Corduroy Roads, not far from Mr. Eck’s General Store. Enos Momenee took this purchased stock and opened up his own General Store on 1 Nov 1871.
Over time, this General Store stood and Enos eventually replaced the frame building with a two-story brick building.
WHO WAS ENOS MOMENEE?
Enos Momenee was born near Vienna, now Erie, Michigian on 18 Jan 1850. He came to DeBolt’s Corners with his father. DeBolt’s Corners was later changed to Momeneetown.
In 1871, Enos began his General Store business in that frame building on the corner of Big Ditch and Corduroy Roads.
Found item from Ancestry.com
Enos married Ms. Elizabeth McTague in 1872, and with her help, they went on to build a thriving business. Enos’ customers made their way to his General Store using old Indian trails. These early customers were living in log and slab homes and their needs varied, but Enos made sure to cater to what they requested. He carried horse harnesses, boots for men, little boots for boys with red tops and copper toes, laces and hats, needles and thread, and everything in between. Enos carried whisky at one dollar for the working men of the sawmills and molasses at ninety cents a gallon, fifty pounds of flour for one dollar and ninety-five cents. Pork could be bought in huge slabs and was sold at nine cents a pound.
Because Enos catered to all his customers, his business increased, which caused him to have to rebuild that old frame building.
Enos wife, Elizabeth treated the customers with the same kindness. She was reported as seeing that groceries and clothing was provided for any family that was in need.
Now, Enos didn’t JUST run his General Store. He also was a land owner and one of the first trustees of the St. Ignatius Church until his death. The church sat on land that Mr. Momenee had donated.
He also co-founded the Commercial Bank which turned into Commercial Savings Bank and Trust Company. He was a very active member in the Oregon, Community.
Enos and Elizabeth had six sons, Frank J., Richard A., Edward J., Roma, Leo E., and Walter, and two daughters, Mrs. Edward Navarre and Mrs. Elmer Dupont.
Enos sons, Edward and Roma went on to continue the General Store business after Enos death in 1929 and the business continued on. Roma passed away and Edward stayed with the business until his retirement in 1953.
Elizabeth, wife of Enos, passed away in 1919 after a long illness.
Found Item from Ancestry.com - Originally published in the Toledo Magazine, Nov 18-24, 1990
This article is from TOLEDO MAGAZINE, Nov 18-24, 1990 and I was unsuccessful in finding the "original" - but I found this COPY that was just too great NOT to share!
It reads:
There once was a place called... Momeneetown
It was pretty much an Oregon reunion for the hundreds who swarmed onto the grounds of St. Ignatius Catholic Church for the parish's annual festival recently. (1990)
But for some of the older parishioners it was not a get-together of present and former residents of the city of Oregon area. They were coming back to their old hometown on Momeneetown.
Momeneetown?
Yes, there once was such a place. For years it was [unreadable] out the only community in all of the former Oregon area township. There was a Momeneetown post office, Momeneetown School, and a cluster of homes, most of them occupied by families with the name of Momenee, Mominee, or Momany.
"Many of the younger generation have never heard of it," said Tommy Momenee, who lives on Stadium Road just north of Corduroy Road. This corner was the center of activity for the once-thriving hamlet which developed around a general store founded by Enos Momenee in 1870.
“You hardly ever hear the term mentioned any more,” Mr. Momenee said. His sentiments are echoed by many others who remember the little town which, for all practical purposes, went out of existence when the Momenee store was closed, and even more so when the City of Oregon was established after the entire township was incorporated in 1957.
Momeneetown was hardly a household word in Toledo, although city residents used to see it listed as the mailing address for almost anyone living in Oregon Township. Toledoans knew it vaguely as a place east of the city.
The one thing Toledoans might remember was that two-story brick store with the distinctive wooden awning or overhang on both the front an back. They passed the store about four miles east of the city as they drove along Corduroy Road, the extension of Consaul, going to the popular public bathing beach at Reno-by-the-Lake, or at other lakefront attractions at Reno Beach and Howard Farms Beach.
SOME OF THE Mominee-Mominee-Momany names date back to 1813, when several early settles [unreadable] ice across Lake Erie to Oregon {unreadable} Raisin massacre in Monroe County [unreadable] the War of 1812.
Momeneetown, however, da- [unreadable] Momenee built the store at the northeast corner of Corduroy and Big Ditch Road. (Big Ditch Road) was changed to Stadium Road [unreadable] of the Clay High School football [unreadable] to the south.)
[Originally, this area was called “DeBolt’s Corners,” after early settler Michael BeBolt.]
Enos Momenee, who was the son of James Momenee, whose [unreadable] Oregon Township farm from {E —unreadable} of years earlier.
The store, which was rebuilt [unreadable] a colorful spot, marked by [unreadable].
What great pillars the Momenee Family was to the Oregon, Ohio early community. I love sharing these old stories to help keep these important members of our city alive, not only with our generation, but with the generations to come.
Stop in NEXT WEEK to see who our OREGON pillar might be!
~Kelley Amstutz
The Genealogy Investigator
Are you curious about your #familyhistory?
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