Recordpub.com - Ravenna history is found on eBay: Item was Reed library namesake's

By Diane Smith

Record-Courier staff writer

When Henry Stel, a history teacher from western Canada, found a stereoscope on eBay, he knew he’d found a sweetheart deal.

But he had no idea that a signature inside the antique would have him digging up local history in Ravenna.

Stel, who describes himself as an antique addict, said his home in Barhead, Alberta, a province just north of Montana, is filled with antiques. Among them are several stereoscopes, which he describes as a predecessor to a modern television, and similar to a “Viewmaster.” Stereoscopes, widely popular in the 19th century and early 20th century, held two images side by side, giving the viewer the ability to see the image in three-dimensional form.

The one he found on eBay holds up to 100 cards, and has two wooden flaps that flip up to let light fall on the cards. It is described as a “sweetheart” stereoscope because it allows a viewer and his sweetheart to view cards at the same time.

“People liked to see images from all over the world, and this allows them to see them in three-dimensional format,” he said. He often takes his stereoscopes to school to allow his students to see the “horrific” images of World War I as depicted on stereoscope cards.

“I want to show them that war is a horrible thing,” he said.

The seller, a custom stair builder who lives in Aurora, Ill., told Stel that he had posessed the item for several years and did not want to part with it, but the economy had caused him to fall on hard times. He had obtained it from a friend in Wisconsin, who is a large antique dealer.

When it arrived, Stel inspected the stereoscope and lifted the top flap. Inside the flap was clearly written, “C.A. Reed, Ravenna Ohio, May 12, 1899.”

“I didn’t even know where Ravenna Ohio was,” he said.

Stel turned to the Internet, where he learned that Judge Cornelius Reed had donated $25,000 to build the library, which eventually came to be known as the Reed Memorial Library. A letter from the judge was posted on the Web site, and the signature matched the one on Stel’s stereoscope.

“I got pretty excited about it,” he said.

But then he became more and more curious about the Reed family, who they were, where they lived, and what the judge had done besides paying for a library. He turned to Jackie Jones of the Portage County Historical Society.

The biography Jones provided stated that Reed had lived from 1838 to 1929. He was unable to fight in the Civil War because of a foot injury, and studied law and set up a practice in Ravenna. In 1869, he became prosecuting attorney, and in 1881, he was elected as a probate judge.

Jones sent him photos of the family grave and photos of Reed’s red brick home at the corner of Meridian and Riddle. She also sent him photos of the homes of Reed’s daughters, Mae Reed Waller, who occupied a home on Main Street surrounded by a black, wrought-iron fence, and Lorena Reed Cole, who occupied a white house on Main Street with a white picket fence.

Mae Reed Waller donated $100,000 to the library when it was reconstructed in 1956, allowing the structure to double in size. The new building was named the Reed Memorial Library. When she died in the early 1960s, she left a bequest to the library.

An annex of the current library is now named in her honor.

Jones suspects that after Reed Waller’s death, the stereoscope was sold at an estate sale, and eventually was picked up by the buyers in Wisconsin, Illinois and now Canada.

Stel wrote about his experiences in a Canadian magazine, “Discovering Antiques,” where he states that the stereoscope “talked” to him, sharing one of its many secrets about Reed. He found it fascinating that Reed’s foot injury kept him out of the war, and wonders if he would have survived to have such a large impact on Ravenna if he had gone to war.

He still wonders if there may be any distant relatives of the Reeds who don’t know the contribution Judge Reed and his daughter made to Ravenna.

“This whole thing has been so much fun,” he said.