AN EXPLOSIVE STORY Historian and author Jerett Godeke discusses his new book The Reservoir War A History of Ohios Forgotten Riot in Americas Gilded Age 1874 1888 during a lecture on the subject at the Archbold campus of Northwest State Community College Friday morning
By: Jesse Davis
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
jesse@thevillagereporter.com
On the night of April 25, 1887, the banks of the Six Mile Reservoir as well as locks in the adjoining Erie-Wabash Canal located just east of Antwerp were blown up by frustrated residents calling themselves “The Dynamiters.”
The causes, the commission, and the aftermath of that night’s events are the subject of the 445-page “The Reservoir War: A History of Ohio’s Forgotten Riot in America’s Gilded Age, 1874-1888.”
Its author, Jerett Godeke, spoke about the book and its subject in a recent lecture at the Archbold campus of Northwest State Community College.
The reservoir was originally constructed in 1842 to supplement the summer and fall flow in the canal, but it was built somewhat poorly, Godeke said.
It was large enough to have wave action from the wind and, despite its size of roughly 2,500 acres, regularly flooded an area of up to 10,000 acres. It was only due to its necessity to the functioning of the canal that residents put up with the flooding.
Public outcry about the reservoir began after flow from the St. Joseph River to Ohio was cut off in Fort Wayne and other runoff from Indiana was diverted away from Six Mile Creek.
At that point nothing came down the canal due to a lack of upstream flow, but it was still used by manufacturers in Defiance to float logs downstream – enough activity to defeat a legislative attempt to have the reservoir decommissioned.
According to a historical marker at the intersection of County Road 180 and Township Road 77 describing the riot, the 2,000-acre reservoir “became a stagnant, uncultivable breeding ground for disease-carrying mosquitos.”
It also generated a terrible smell of rotting plants due in part to tree stumps not being removed from the basin during the creation of the reservoir.
Then late that fateful April night, at least 200 Dynamiters who descended upon the reservoir and “overpowered citizen guards, gouged the banks of the reservoir, dynamited the bulkhead and lock, and burned down the lockkeeper’s house” all while carrying a banner reading “No Compromise! The Reservoir Must Go!” the marker states.
“Every lock from the reservoir down to Junction was blown up or burned,” Godeke said. Due to the massive amount of damage, about a hundred national guardsmen were sent in, including the A, C, and H companies and Battery D from Toledo.
Among the equipment they brought with them was a gatling gun, which was set up on the bank of the reservoir. After about a week with no further activity, the guardsmen were recalled.
In fact, there was only one recorded death connected with the riot and subsequent action, 18-year-old Private Fred Reeves. While it is believed to be unrelated, there are multiple stories as to how the man died.
Godeke said the most likely report regarding 18-year-old Private Fred Reeves is that he was picking up his rifle and it discharged, fatally shooting him in the head.
“His birthday was April 8, 1887, he turned 18, he joined the National Guard on April 21st, and he died on April 25th,” he said. “He was brand new.”
In his wide-ranging lecture that pulled in the political history of the area, individual players, and the eventual decommissioning of the reservoir the year after the riot, Godeke also told the story of a Detective Norris, who was run out of town by a mob carrying a noose after being sent to determine who the rioters were, as well as the story of the Independence Day celebration the following July.
The holiday festivities were expanded to include a celebration of the reservoir being officially abandoned, including sporting, a baseball game, and a roasted ox.
Company H and Battery D, which had been mobilized after the riot, were invited and a recognition ceremony was held for Private Reeves. Battery D even brought back the gatling gun along with an ordinance gun to shoot off, and also participated in a parade.
Godeke has an associate of arts degree from the community college as well as a bachelor’s in history from Lake Superior State University and was a master’s history student at Bowling Green State University when he started seriously researching the subject.
“I happened to be in a local history class so I needed a topic to choose and I thought this reservoir war thing might make for a good 20-page paper. 445 pages later that might have been a little bit of an understatement.”
The project didn’t end up being that 20-page paper, but did eventually birth his book, which he self-published on Amazon. Godeke said he has sold around 160 copies so far, but that his goal was just to get the book out.
“If I only ever sell 200 copies, that’s fine by me,” he said. Godeke, who works as a librarian in Allen County, Indiana, said he is working on a second edition of the book.
Nothing already in the book will change, but he is adding some new details and context. One such addition will be the words of songs written in support of the anti-reservoir movement, some of which were sung at the July 4 celebration.
In addition to Amazon, the book is available online through other retailers such as Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million.
