interview with Clifford Romig on Sept. 22, 1989 conducted by his 
granddaughter Karla Tipton

K: This is something you sent me about all the places you worked.
G: Oh yeah. There's one on there when I was a kid about 16 and the 
War was on I got a job over at the Barberton Machine Shop running 
an overhead crane and I was only 16. One time I didn't get it 
turned off very good and I hit it into the wall and knocked all the 
tools off of the wall. You know, you gotta shut it off...and the 
trouble the boss wanted me to unload a coal car on 
Sunday and I wouldn't do it and they fired me.
K: Cause it was a Sunday?
G: No. I didn't want to unload coal cars. That would be a hard job 
to unload coal with a crane. That one before ever mentioned the 
jobs I worked. I was just a kid. 
K: How long were you there?
G: I don't remember. Till about the time I started peddling Beacon 
Journal papers, I guess. Since I was about 16.
K: And that's when you delivered them to your Grandma?
G: Yeah.
K: She lived on the corner of Elmwood?
G: Yeah. I always brought her one on the way home to give it to 
her. I lived right over on her route.
K: You know, I tried to get I copy of her death certificate and 
they couldn't find it.
G: 1918.
K: In the flu epidemic.
G: Yeah.
K: I wrote to Akron and they don't have it.
G: I'll be darned. 
K: I also was going to look up her obituary in the newspaper. Did 
they run one?
G: I don't know. I was only a kid in '18 myself. 
K: Did you go to her funeral? 
G: Yeah. My mom was step daughter and she didn't like about it, and Edna 
had to put her name on and get the lot over there.
K: For both of them?
G: Yeah, he's right beside of her. But she's the one who got a 
stone and the numbers are all wearing off of it. 
K: Of your grandma.
G: They're wearing off. We know what it says and everything. Mom 
guessed her age when she was born. It wasn't right. Mom didn't know 
when her mother was born. She guessed '47, 1847. 
K: It was 1850.
G: Mom guessed at it and put it on a stone. They were funny people, 
mom was. My mother.
K: Did she remember much about her real dad, Joe Lehman?
G: I don't think so. She was 10 years old when he died.
K: Cause I can't find anything about him either.
G: I know. Mom told Evelyn (indecipherable). My mother know where's Joe was
buried. On a hill. I still think Evelyn might have his (?).
K: But you don't know how he died or anything?
G: Yeah. He fell down an elevator.
K: What, a grain elevator?
G: Yeah. a grain elevator. I don't know whether it was his brother-
in-law's or not. Jewell Carter and Steward (indecipherable) Quaker Oats 
down there...
K: On Main Street?
G: Main and Howard, yeah.
K: But you know if it was his mill.
G: No, I don't. I ain't got the real particulars. I was told he 
fell down an elevator and killed.
K: Your Grandma told you that?
G: Yeah.
K: In your mother's testimony she said he was a gardener.
G: He was. He had a stall up there in Akron and he showed his 
garden stuff right in that place everyday. He'd load up his wagon 
and go up there then come back. He used to bring my mother all 
kinds of bananas. And she ate so many, she never liked bananas.
K: Traded with the other people.
G: Uh huh.
K: Where was that? Main street?
G: Yeah it was in Main. Way out there pretty far. Right where Main 
Street shops are. Where the busses turn around and go back. That 
was a kind of a house where Joe got his stall.
K: A farmer's market?
G: Yeah.
K: So he'd have to drive clear from East Avenue.
G: Yeah. Down here on East Avenue clear up there.
K: But he worked in the mill sometimes?
G: He wouldn't be in the mill. Her brother run the mill, see. He 
might have been up there visiting. Joel Carter was a brother to 
Sarah Carter, he was. Did you find out anything more about him? 
They moved to California and that's all I know.
K: I found out some things about him. He was a gambler and he used 
to play cards and he won some land near Sacramento in a card game.
He was married three times.
G: The lady over there had two children and never came over and 
he never got a divorce from her, did he?
K: No. Nobody really knows who got all the money because he was pretty 
rich.
G: Be a Carter. Somebody named Carter, wouldn't it.
K: He was a pretty feisty character.
G: He says I want you to come over and she just refused to come. 
She had them two boys and they over there in that picture with 
their Grandpa Jewell, and they're his son, but he's over here in 
California. 
K: He wrote her several letters trying to get her to come over. But 
finally he married a woman from Cuyahoga Falls. Did you write to 
your cousin Emmie Burt very often?
G: Yeah. Quite often.
K: I copied a couple of her letters.
G: She worked in the post office. But all at once she died and that 
was the end of my writing to her.
K: 1924. She didn't have any children.
G: No, she didn't. If Grandma had hung around longer, she was going 
to take me over there. 
K: That would have been good.
G: Yeah. Grandma liked me. 
K: Was she tall like your mom?
G: Yeah.
K: Did she have blond hair like you?
G: Yeah. And the only picture mom had of her blew out the window. 
And we couldn't find it. I was there. I lived on the farm. You know 
I have no picture of her. 
K: I don't think anybody does.
G: How about the bachelor, what was his name? Played in the band? 
He never got married. 
K: No. Oliver never got married.
G: Oliver! Yeah. Oliver would know her. Oliver.
K: So he wasn't in Boston very long.
G: No. Didn't like Boston. I imagine the weather wasn't very...
K: Well. It's kind of cold in England.
G: Yeah it is. Now can you see a box on the floor and we'll look 
for Joe Lehman's picture.
K: Is it in the same box?
G: Yeah, but we couldn't find it. You'll have to do it. I can't do 
it. 
K: You know what I can't find. I can't find any records of your 
Grandma living in Buffalo. They must have lived there for awhile.
G: On the birth certificate the name was Nash.
K: Did your mom ever tell you about Buffalo?
G: No. Never mentioned to me till Evelyn found that.
K: On the U.S. Census I found Joseph Lehman's parents Theresa, 
living in Akron.
G: We've got a picture of her.
K: In 1880. But he wasn't living there in 1880 and I just don't 
know where he was. So Joe Lehman was an iron molder too? A gardener 
and an iron molder.
G: Yeah. A molder. He worked in a foundry. 
K: What foundry, do you know?
G: No I don't.
K: Was that in Akron?
G: Probably. No he was a gardener in Akron.
K: So it must have been in Buffalo.
G: Must have been in Buffalo.

G: I'm getting old too fast ain't I?
K: Me too. I'm 30 now.
G: I know, but look at me. I'm going to be 87. I didn't hurt your 
feelings last night did I? I was awfully tired.
K: I know. It was late. I was getting tired too.
G: It would be like a book. He had it copyrighted.
K: I know. I saw that.
G: That means none of us can steal it. But I did steal one thing 
out of it.
K: I want to make copies of this.
G: Take it with you. I'm never going to worry about people in 
Seneca County. You oughta be coming into that history.
K: I found the book he copyrighted.
G: Now go through that and see. In the envelope and see. I had the 
original copy put in there. I got it somewhere. I wanted you to 
take it back.
K: Anyway your grandma's divorce said she owned some land. Where 
was that, do you know?
G: Grandma Houser? Kenmore Boulevard. They show you that mom bought 
a new Dodge and Aunt Sadie bought a home on Copley hill and they 
divided it. But mom got enough to buy a Dodge touring car.
K: When was that?
G: When she died.
K: And that was on Kenmore Boulevard?
G: Yeah. (unintelligible).
K: Did she have a will when she died?
G: Well they split it even.
K: Well I'll have to see if I can find that.
G: Yeah. That might be up in Akron where she was.
K: She didn't own the house on Norwood then.
G: No. She didn't own nothing then.
K: But she did own land in Kenmore.
G: Yeah.
K: So where did Wes Houser live after she died.
G: He moved away and got a job as a cowboy.
K: A cowboy.
G: Yeah. He wound up when he died he was cowboy.
K: Where was that?
G: Someplace where they had a lot of cows.
K: In Ohio?
G: I never heard where he died. In the Southern part of Ohio.
K: Isn't he buried up here?
G: Yeah. Beside of Grandma. Grandma bought him a lot when she died. 
They're buried up there together. Nobody was interested in Grandpa.

G: That's your sister. She ain't a bit like you. One thing about 
it, she's got it made. She don't need to worry about working.

K: Oh I know what I was going to ask you? I found the speech you 
heard by President Taft. Remember I sent it to you? When you were 
6 years old?
G: Yeah. That was my Grandma Houser down there. You know Grandma 
Houser was kind of a rounder. 
K: Did she drink too?
G: No. She didn't drink, but I think she did drink beer.  We went 
up to Akron when she had to go into the saloon and get a beer 
before she drove me home. I can remember that. And I was pretty 
young then wasn't I.
K: You went into a saloon.
G: It down the cellar up on Main Street.

G: Now anything you want I want to give it to you now. Better for 
you to have it than it laying here.
K: What do you remember about hearing the president talk. Do you 
remember?
G: No. We stood down in the back of the...(indecipherable) I was tired and we sat right near the tracks, down there by the railroad tracks. 
K: Is that the depot down there by Angie's?
G: Yeah.
K: Was it raining, was it sunny? Was it raining?
G: Could of been. Hey you know my dad was learning me how to drop, 
plant potatoes. And I was planting the potatoes and he was back up 
the hill and she come over and give him heck for using me when I 
was just a little kid to plant the potatoes and pop got mad and he 
never would take me to work or do anything. Grandma Houser just set 
into him. Pop was learning me how to plant potatoes. He never did 
... a working farmer. And she didn't like kids working. You know 
that house down there, got one tiny room.. Pop built that for her 
to stay in. That was the mother-in-law's house. So at one time she 
must have stayed with pop and mom.
K: Where was that? Down on the farm?
G: No. Down on High Street. When he built the house that I was born 
in, he made a little room for Grandma Houser to live in. Mother-in-
law's room. It had a window and a window and a door and it went out 
on the front porch over to the side. And the one from the house was 
from this side. And that one went out that way. It had a private 
door to that room.
K: Across from Hazelwood.
G: No that's the one where we sold it, where High Speed was. The 
one on Oakwood. We had it moved it back on the lot. That's the one 
I bought.
K: Is it still there?
G: Yeah. People are there. I sold it and bought the one over on 
Elmwood.

K: Here's your dad's death day. He went downhill after MacArthur 
had to get out of China.
G: Yeah. Pop died cause Truman fired MacArthur. Pop was a real 
Democrat. You know, Bob ? lived on the other side of Wooster Road 
North and then too he was building a garage over in West Barberton, 
and he was a cement blocker, and everytime he went by there, him 
and ? would get in a fight. We had to pull the ?. We had a time 
with pop. He was a real Democrat.
K: And he got in a fight with a Republican.
G: Yeah. 
K: What was the guy's name?
G: Bob Chay. The guy that lived across the street was (indecipherable). 
Uncle Jewell or I would have to stop them from fighting. 
K: Grandma's brother.
G: Yeah. He would (indecipherable). It is funny isn't it. That's why I 
know he'd vote for the devil if he was running for president, my 
dad would if he was a Democrat. He was a real Democrat.
K: What was your mom?
G: I don't know.
K: Taft was a Republican. I wonder what he thought when you went 
down to hear him talk.
G: I don't know. He never said.

Commenting on painting of himself as janitor or else photo in 
Barberton Post 1955.
G: Out there on the lawn at Barberton Stadium. Borg painted that.

K: I started helping you with this stuff when I was a kid.
G: It was 1922 when I joined the society.
K: I wasn't around then though.
G: That's when I joined the Romig society. Uncle Hi, he was selling 
Page cars in Akron, and Uncle George and me and Blanche ? when.. 
Coonstown Pennsylvania in 1922. And rode his band all over ....
K: I know where you get your musical ability, because all those 
Carters were musicians.
G: Oh yeah. Hey, Oliver when he joined the band, they gave him an 
old banged up horn that nobody could play, to see how good he could 
play it. Made him play an old banged up horn.
K: How good did he play it?
G: Good enough to make the band. He wound up leaving the band. 
K: That was in Boston.
G: No. That was over in England when he joined the U...Guard Band. 
He had to be a good musician to get in. A lot of music on my 
Grandma's side, wasn't there.
K: Yeah. They were well known in their part of England.

K: So how'd you end up meeting Grandma? 
G: Edna? Well, it happened like this. I was staying with Aunt 
Clary. And I was working at the railroad company, and I'd give em 
rent, and she polished my Durant car, and I finally went, and 
Grandpa Tilley was working with dad and Chet Blay. Then I went over 
there one day, acting like I go and then I buy a box of candy 
and go over. I didn't know what I was really doing. I went over 
there, I arrived at the door, I had this box of candy. And there 
was three girls come down the steps. One of them was Edna probably 
and the other one was Flory and Bessie, and I give the box to the 
girl that had a big crimp in her dress in the middle, and that 
happened to be Edna. I took my tug for three of those girls. It was 
just all luck. You know it. Everybody says How were you so lucky to 
get a girl like that. Even down there when Aunt Vi had her stroke, 
they said, there's no Edna down here to help take care of her like 
there is up there. There ain't no one as good as Edna.
K: You should tell her that once and a while.
G: Yeah. I forget to tell her.

K: Is this one of your school pictures?
G: That's it. Hey, that's one I didn't even know I had. You see, 
I'm right down here, on my knees, see?
K: What grade was this?
G: Seventh.
K: So this would be at High Street.
G: Yeah that's the one at Portage. I was only there one year, and 
it was the seventh year, huh. Then they sent me down there to the 
high school for eighth grade.
K: I heard you and grandma ran off to Kentucky to get married.
G: No, we went to West Virginia.
K: Eddy Nichols, a good friend of mine, I give him 2 dollars to 
keep his mouth shut, hush money. And we went over to Wellsburg, 
West Virginia, got married. He went to the phone and called the 
boss and said I'm down with Edna and Clifford here getting married. 
He spilled it before he even got home. And the next morning when I 
went to work then, everyone looked at me funny. Because they all 
knew that I got married last night. I didn't hide nothing. But over 
there it was easy to get married because for $20 they'd do the 
whole thing, preacher and all, and registered.

K: I wanted to ask you, where Lula was born, it says on Bowers 
farm. Where's that.
G: On State Street out on Romig Road. Bowers farm. The barn was 
here and here was the houses, and you had to walk Romig Road 
every time you went to the barn. Pop was farming there. Pop was 
riding Bill down there, and the calf came down along side and 
caught Pop right on the eye and put a big hole on his face. The 
calf's horn. That was an awful accident of Pop's. That happened at 
Bower's place. The house was on this side where Greenlawn is and 
the barn was over on that side. Oh we had a time. That's when I 
went up to that school all the time. I lived at the Bower's place; 
that's where I lived.
K: He was what, farming their land?
G: Yeah. On charity. We farmed it and give the guy that owned the 
farm part of what we raised.
K: Corner of State Street and Oakwood Street.
G: That's me. That's down near the corner of Wooster Road North 
and.. That needs to be... that was the original name, when I was 
born.
K: Then everybody else was born in the big house?
G: Yeah.
K: No it says on State Street.
G: Then, her and I must have both been born there.
K: Then above Archie's and Evelyn's name it says nurse. They had a 
nurse?
G: Must have.
K: Your mom wrote all this?
G: Uh huh. That's out of the original bible that mom and dad had.
K: It's falling apart.
G: But I saved that piece.
K: She even wrote down the times they were born.
G: There's the house I was born. And look at me. I'm setting out in 
the front with my little Teddy Bears and see my tie. See my tie, 
it's got little Teddy Bears in? Yeah -- I thought I was somebody 
then. Corner of High Street and Oakwood -- that's it. Pop built it 
out of the woods that he sawed out at the Romig farm.
K: Your Dad sure looks different there.
G: He's got a mustache! That's my dad.
K: Where's the mother-in-law's house?
G: Now I can tell you a little bit. See this big window here? Well 
that's the mother-in-law. And here's the door where you come out 
onto the porch. They built that for Grandma. He sawed the wood out 
of Grandpa Isaac's -- Hey, that's a good one. This is Don, this is 
Russell and Kitty and Don. Her name was really Blanche, but we all 
called her Kitty. She's the only daughter that uncle George had. 
And Don is that little fat kid. And the other one, Dewey got killed 
with being on a train when he was 13.  The engine hit him. He was 
in swimming down here at Young's crossing. And walked in front of 
another train coming. And Uncle George went down to the morgue and 
say, Is my boy down here? My Dewey. Uncle George was that kind of 
person.

END of TAPE 1, SIDE 2, from Sept. 22, 1989.