Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1898-02-05
Our Venture and Its Failure.
BY CHARLES ADAMS.

list of the delinquent taxpayers. Each
name is usually followed by some brief
remark by the selectmen, explaining
why the tax cannot be collected. The
following are typical entries:
James Jones, poor and sick.'
"William Smith, whereabouts un-
known.'A
"Richard Smith, cannot be found"
"Luke Clay, absconded."
"Abram Lord i'll and town charge"
1t is not list in which anybody with
a spark of personal pride wouli like to
see his name. Indeed, it must be fatal
TO self-respect so to be held up year
after year to public disapprobation.
And the wrath may be imagined with
which the kinsfolk of the delinquent
citizen read their decent name III the
black list!
Among the names which appear there
regularly is that of Burnside Berry, and
II is usually followed by the con-
temptuous words: "Loafer and worth
less"
Burnside Berry's tax record possesses
more interest. for me perhaps than for
others; for when I was a boy he was my
we called him,was an impetuous, warm
hearted fellow who was always invent
ing or trying to invent something or
other. Studious and dreamy, he had,
think, in large measure the true invent
I've temperament, but HE lacked persis-
tence.
OF all his contrivances I remember
with good reason his windmill boat
especially well.
Burnside and and boy named Her
man Day had begun to attend the Nor
we'll academy, with the half-formed
purpose of fitting for college. We were
all extremely poor, and had to resort TO
vnrious expedients for earning money
while at the academy.
One of these was to prepare stove
wood, which could be taken down the
lake into Norwell village in a boat and
sold for enough to pay our weekly ex-
penses.
Our homes were in the northern part
of the town, seven miles from the
academy. The lake, a long, narrow sheet
of water, extends nearly the entire
length of the town. At the foot of the
d
Fifteen or twenty years ago, when we
were at the academy, the people of the
village had not begun to use coal as
fuel, but depended on wood drawn from
the northern part of the town. A cord
of seasoned dry wood sold usually for
four dollars or four dollars and half,
but if sawed and split into stove-wood
1t was worth from five to six dollars.
AS the years passed, most of the wood
fit for fuel, within five or six miles of the
village, was used. In fact, only one
large wood-lot remained on the shore of
the lake. 1t was at the extreme north
ern end, and was so surrounded by
deep ravines that to reach it with teams
was almost impossible. An effort had
been made one winter to draw the wood
to the village on the ice of the lake, but
~spring heads" and other treacherous
places in the ice, made the attempt
failure.
In fact, the difficulty of getting the
wood to market from the Squire Frost
lot" as it was called, was so great that
the owner was forced to offer the wood
for sale at 35 cents, stumpage, n cord
Such was the condition of the wood
business in Norwell when, on one
cloudy day in August, Burn nside, Her.
man Day and l came along the shore
of the lake, fishing for pickerel. Stop
ping to look at the old wood-boat, we
discussed methods of getting the wood
to market. If we could only run that
boat back and forth to Norwell village,
we could easily prepare stovewood and
sell it at large enough profit TO pay our
tuition and other expenses.
1t was then that Burnside conceived
the idea of windmill erected amid
ships of the old wood-boat and con-
nected with a cross shaft and two pad
die-wheels. The windmill could be
made to work equally well whichever
way the wind blew, he argued; and the
paddle-wheels would drive the boat up
or down the lake, as we pleased. 1t
could be steered just like steamboat,
he thought, and whenever the wind
blew we could navigate the craft to or
from the village.
Neither Herman nor I fully under
stood the scheme, or quite trusted it,;
but ii was plausible, as Burnside stated
1t, and we hoped it would prove success
full.
Burnside himself was quite carried
away with the idea; and for two or
three weeks he worked as only an ambi-
tious young inventor can work. He
erected tripod frame on the boat
made a windmill 12 feet in diameter,
and connected it by means of crank
rod with shaft and two rude paddle
wheels.
Herman and I, meantime, made q
bargain with Squire Frost for wood on
the stump, and while Burnside was al
work On his invention, cut and sawed
three cords of stove wood, ready fol-
transportation.
Neither of us had said much to the