World War II created high demand for new manufacturing industries, as well as expansion of established industries. Safer industries were located in and around cities and the more dangerous, such as ordnance manufacturing and testing, were located in areas like Port Clinton, considered rural.   By October 1940, Erie Ordnance Depot was reported to be expanding to include more military members and civilians. Anti-aircraft guns and new types of anti-aircraft shells were to be shipped to Port...

In this series we are taking an historical look at an area that covers approximately a mile of Main Street in downtown Marblehead. Heading east from the Village limits, we will discover the facts and the stories of how Marblehead became what it is today. In our last article we left off near the public parking lot on Main Street in front of the old hospital building. Walking east, the next area you come to is all about the quarry. On the north side of the road is the entrance to the quarry...

To say that Verdi von Thron left her mark on Port Clinton’s history would be a bit of an understatement: She was a dynamo! Agnes Verdi Cangney was born on Catawba Island on March 5, 1899, to J.P. and Rachel Cangney. She graduated in 1917 from the Oak Harbor Normal School, where her family believes she met her future husband. Verdi and Leonard Carl von Thron married on June 18, 1923, at Immaculate Conception in Port Clinton.   They and their children, Joseph and Judy, first lived in Toledo,...