Zane Coffin (Geneva Ohio Real Estate Agent)

On November 2nd 1915 was the 1st U.S. election by proportional representation in Ashtabula, Ohio

With all the party's that have come andgone Who is to say who is right and who is wrong....no mater what party you are with List of political parties in the United States there are going to be flaws in it. And someone somewhere ain't going to like it....you can count on that...

I myself have friends that some would call Left and some would call Right and everything in between and around the whole spectrum of political views...And yes they are my friends even if we don't see eye to eye on somethings....we still have other things in common and they are my friends....I build on those things we agree on....not what we disagree on...

Anyway I was looking at this day in history and came across this little history lesson I thought I would share with you about Ashtabula,Ohio being the first to use this type of system Proportional representation it is a democratic principle rather than an electoral system in itself...ummm sounds better already...

But like all good things if it don't fit your style you will find away to make it not work..And they did....just like all the other Party's from the past and present that you, me, or them don't like

The political roots of proportional representation in the United States originated in the Progressive Movement of the early 20th century.

If by chance you have read this far you might as well click on this link it is very interesting and informative A Brief History of Proportional Representation in the United States It talks a lot about why it failed and some of the reasons at the different time periods in history.

Maybe when we as a human race come together we will get it right but until then not everybody is going to be happy with any government anywhere in this world. This is just my opinion....or is it a fact?

anyway like always, I may not know what I'm talking about...................

and If you have read this far......thanks for stopping by...............peace zane

Well Are You? Everyone that knows me, knows I love old cars, bridges, and buildings...But I also love the new things also, and always get excited when I hear of a new car coming out or a new building going up or somewhere a brand new bridge is being built...

Mr Ford once said "People can have the Model T in any colour--so long as it's black."Well it was 19 years before Henry Ford "Looked to the Past for the Future." And changed his thinking. By the end of 1927 you could have any Model A in 4 different colours ....Just not Black... He went back to the past and gave people a choice.

Now don't get me wrong I love the Internet and all it has done for Real Estate and the vast information and knowledge we can consume from it. How it has opened up a new market for everyone to meet that you would never have found before. I could go on and on with all the good it has done and I'm sure you could add things that I never even thought of...But

Is there really anything better then making a friend or finding love or getting a new client... from a face to face meeting? Is there? I think not. Like I said I love the Internet....maybe to much...But I really love to meet people face to face.

When I was younger we didn't have the Internet and I had to meet people face to face. Maybe its time to look to the past and find the future. Get out from behind your computer and see who your neighbors are, the people at the store, the ones down at the park, the people at your kids schools, they are everywhere.

Yes the computer is great but isn't face to face so much better? If you are ever in my town stop by and see me....Face to Face....

"You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do." Henry Ford You have to go out and do it face to face......zane

Nov 1 1927 Henry Ford looked to the past to find the future and started production of the Model A

peace zane

A little history if you like.....

There were several cars produced or prototyped by Henry Ford from the founding of the company in 1903 until the Model T came along. Although he started with the Model A, there were not 19 production models (A through T); some were only prototypes. The production model immediately before the Model T was the Ford Model S,^[2] an upgraded version of the company's largest success to that point, the Model N. The follow-up was the Ford Model A and not the Model U. Company publicity said this was because the new car was such a departure from the old that Henry wanted to start all over again with the letter A

Some people believe in haunted houses and cemeteries and some don't. Is it just your imagination or is it true? Are there ghost and spirits with us or is it the wind and the ground settling below us? In Madison we have and large old building that has been around since 1859 Maybe it is haunted maybe its not.

What I do know is I have been in this building( my fair share of times in the late 80's ) and it was quite the spooky place back then. When I was there it had high ceilings, paint flaking off the walls, big heavy doors that squeaked when you opened and shut them, and dark long hallways, and lots of strange sounds from other rooms...yes everything you need for a ghost to live in....

For years people been saying that Ohio Cottage was haunted and that a lot of people died in that big old building. Is it true? Well I am sure that people have died there ..... some are even buried next door in the cemetery that once lived in the house.

Well some of you may be wondering was I scared when I was there? Well yes I was ....But not for the reason you may think...Most of my visits there were for other reason in the late 80's But that is a whole other story.....lol....hint 1978-1992 Madison Township Office Building (AKA) can you say police station. And you thought zane was a good boy.....

History of the Madison Township Facility

In 1847 a small frame building opened in Madison Township, Lake County, OH that became known as the Madison Seminary. It provided high school and beyond education to people of Lake and surrounding counties. Few written records survive this period.

By 1859 a brick structure had been added to the east side of the original structure. The original frame structure was converted to a boarding hall. At one time some 150 students were enrolled in the Seminary.

The Madison Seminary buildings would serve students from 1847 to July 1891.

By Nov 10, 1891, the name of the facility officially became the Madison Home, purchased and owned by the Ohio Women's Relief Corps, a women's group of the Grand Army of the Republic, GAR for short. This home was to render needful assistance to Army nurses and soldiers' mothers, wives and sisters for whom no provision has yet been made to care for the people uprooted from the spoils of America's Civil War. The Madison site provided the best of five possible sites that were offered.

The Women's Relief Corps (WRC) constructed the western most section of the township center on the site of the original wooden structure of the school in 1891. The name on the doorway arch is Ohio Cottage.

In 1904, WRC donated the building to the State of Ohio when the organization could no longer afford to maintain it. The Report to the Governor of the State of Ohio called the complex Home of the Ohio Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, Their Wives, Mothers, Widows and Army Nurses.

The WRC Madison Home portion of the facility officially ceased operation June 30, 1962 when it was taken over by the Ohio Department of Mental Hygiene and Corrections. Widows living in the Home either would be returned to their relatives or would be placed in private nursing homes under Aid to the Aged. Several of the residents were much saddened at the verdict, since they had no living relatives to look after their requirements.

In the 1960's, the institution was called Opportunity Village.A one-story addition connecting the other buildings was constructed, although another may have been built in 1989. Opportunity Village housed some selected honor inmates from Ohio Women's Reformatory in Marysville. These inmates worked as staff at the facility, learning skills as nurse's aids and other occupations.

It also became an extension of Apple Creek State Hospital and housed retarded women, most of whom could care for themselves. A joint project with the Ohio Bureau of Vocational Rehabilitation, it was hoped that the slow learners and prisoners could be rehabilitated to live productive lives in society.

Also for a few months in 1964 it served as an extension of Cleveland State Hospital for aged, senile women.

Opportunity Village was closed in 1975 and the Lake County Commissioners purchased the building from the State of Ohio.

In the late 1970's Madison Township leased the facilities from the county to house its offices.

In 1981 Madison Township purchased the building from the county, with the understanding that the county would buy it back when Madison Township no longer had use for the facility. Later Madison Township became involved in designing a new Administration Complex to be located on Hubbard Road. Since the Lake County Commissioners had agreed to buy back the old facility, they did so, but had not decided it's fate.

The facility is on the National Historic Register and the county said it would do anything it could to save it.

In the 1980's, Lake County Administrator, Kenneth R Gautner admitted that demolition might be necessary since the facility, now two + buildings, does not meet required fire, electrical and plumbing codes.

Aside from not meeting codes, some township employees, who have worked in the history-rich facility, indicate that there may be a few ghosts.

A newspaper advertisement appeared in the 1993 newspapers - For Rent: Historic building on Middle Ridge Road . . . can be leased cheap, caution - building may be haunted.

In 1998 the county commissioners agreed, according to the Plain Dealer, to sell the property to Mr. John Cassell for $28,500. It was Mr. Cassell who gave this author and editor a tour of part of the facility. He also owns the adjacent Cass-Mill Nurseries. He uses part of the complex for an office, and has allowed the Madison Historical Society some temporary storage and office space. It is listed in the auditor's office in 2003 as owned by Ohio Cottage Inc., although no sale was noted.

As genealogists, we are most interested in the facility when it functioned as the Madison Home. This author's conjecture on the Madison Homeis that it was to Madison Township, Lake County, Ohio in a parallel manner as Berea Children's home in Berea, Ohio and the Soldiers' and Sailors Home in Sandusky serve other particular areas of the State of Ohio. All three facilities were established to facilitate caring for people whose lives were disrupted by the Civil War. The Ohio State Legislature was the governing force behind the establishment of these facilities.

Of greater interest for genealogical purposes are the people who came and went from the Madison Home in the time period 1891-1962 when the Women's Relief Corps operated the facility.

All the above information has been gleaned from newspaper articles from the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Cleveland Press, The Madison Press, The News Report of Lake County, The News Herald of Lake County; Lake County Historical Society, Ohio Historical Society and Extracts of the Ohio State Legislature.

Madison Seminary 1847-1891, 44 Years

Madison Home 1891-1962, 71 Years

Opportunity Village 1962-1975, 13 Years

Madison Township Office Building 1978-1992, 14 Years

Respectfully submitted,
Jean Barnes
Cleveland District Trustee, Ohio Genealogical Society

More Info on Madison Ohio's Real Haunted House (The Star Beacon)

Northeast Ghost Hunters

Photo by: BILL WEST / Star Beacon.

Everyone have a safe and happy Halloween...............peace zane

Every day I can get an e-mail from my broker Tony Geraci that he calls Daily Motivation it is just a short little quote he e-mails to all his agents.... But on Fridays we get "Friday Story" It is a little motivational story that he passes on to us all. And let me tell you sometimes they are really good and other times they are just over the top great.

Some of the story's he sends really get me thinking and this mornings was pretty good so I thought I would pass it on to you...

Tony is always looking for great agents. So if you are an agent (or thinking of becoming one) in Ohio or Florida and looking to make a change give Tony a call and don't forget to tell him zane sent you....

So here is your Friday story.....peace zane

If You Change One Thing, You Change Everything

Looking back on your life, what would you change if you could?

In the classic 1946 film It's a Wonderful Life, the main character, a small-town bank officer played by Jimmy Stewart, is about to commit suicide when an angel shows him how different the lives of people in Bedford Falls would be if he hadn't been born. The movie is a favorite because it affirms how each of us touches the lives and shapes the future in unexpected and often marvelous ways.

More modern films like Back to the Future, Sliding Door, and Frequency are built on a similar premise: If you change the past, you change the future - often in dramatic and unpredictable ways. If you change one thing, you change everything.

Given the potential impact of every decision you make, it's wise to think ahead. Although few things turn out exactly as we plan, the better we understand how our choices start a chain reaction of events, the more likely we are to get what we want.

The enormous complexity of cause and effect leads to another conclusion: It's futile to look back at our lives with "what if" scenarios. What's done is done. Although changing our past would change our present, it would do so in ways that are so unpredictable that we could never know whether it would be for better or worse.

Accept and celebrate the fact that what you are today is a direct result of everything that's happened to you. It's pointless to wish things were different. Remember, if you change one thing, you change everything.

Michael Josephson
www.charactercounts.org

"Every day, in every way...your success is my business"

Sincerely,

Anthony F. Geraci
Broker / Owner Century 21 HomeStar
Mobile: 216-374-1269
Email: tonyg@century21.com
Web: www.century21.com.com

With over 200 Agents, Century 21 HomeStar is the largest Century 21 office in Ohio. Servicing all of Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Toledo Areas. Century 21 HomeStar is in the top 10 Century 21 office nationwide.

After a long rainy day Becky decides to go into work for a few hours. The kids go to bed I'm thinkin...great I can watch some T.V. ....She gives me a kiss and says I will be home in a few hours. O ya the house to myself.....

Nope not even 5 minutes later my cell phone is ringing..... "Call from Becky..Call from Becky" my cell phone says....So I pic up the phone...

I say " What you miss me Already" (I know she didn't) but I had to ask....

She said "I just hit a deer"

I said "What did you do"?

She said "I just hit a deer dear"

I said "O"

Then see said "what do I do"

(Shes asking me like I'm the professional deer hitter....)

I said " Are you ok"

She said "my car is totaled"

I said "OK that's nice are you ok?"

She then said " did you hear me my car is (------edited for your reading enjoyment------) totaled"

I said "ok hold on call the police I will be right there"

she was a mile down the road and she whacked a deer....or should I say the deer whacked her...

So what do you do? The thing to do is dial 9-1-1. If the deer is moving, pull your car in front of oncoming traffic and turn on your hazards. This will stop others from hitting the deer. When the police arrive, fill out an accident report for insurance purposes. The police will be able to call the proper local authorities about the deer.........From the Minnesota Department of Transportation.

Although deer-vehicle collisions can cause extensive vehicle damage, most serious injuries and fatalities are caused by drivers taking evasive actions," said Kathy Swanson, director of Driver and Vehicle Services with the Department of Public Safety. "Drivers need to avoid swerving into oncoming traffic or leaving the road which can cause them to hit a tree or other object. It's safer to hit a deer than to risk hitting another vehicle or a fixed object such as a tree," she said. "Apply your brakes firmly, hold onto the steering wheel and bring your vehicle to a controlled stop......By Josh Peterson

Ok so now you and I are experts on what to do when your loved ones call saying " I hit a Deer Dear "

O ya Becky was fine ....The car its not so bad....

When its dark and you just whacked a deer it always seems worse then you think.....Stay calm call 911 then call your loved ones and don't tell them the car is totaled....It just scares us way to much...

drive safe everyone .....peace zane