{"id":40066,"date":"2023-04-24T12:35:25","date_gmt":"2023-04-24T16:35:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/?p=40066"},"modified":"2023-04-24T12:35:27","modified_gmt":"2023-04-24T16:35:27","slug":"no-compromise-history-of-the-reservoir-war-of-1887-educates-entertains-raises-funds-for-antwerp-chamber-mural-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/no-compromise-history-of-the-reservoir-war-of-1887-educates-entertains-raises-funds-for-antwerp-chamber-mural-project\/","title":{"rendered":"No Compromise! History of the Reservoir War of 1887: Educates, Entertains & Edifies; Raises Funds for Antwerp Chamber Mural Project"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Pictured here are (l-r) Bryce Steiner as Ed Osborn (editor of Antwerp Argus), reporting about Sheriff Parr (played by Jason Landers) arresting Worden Henry Sperry (played by Justin Boss) after the Six Mile Reservoir was blown up on April 25, 1887.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Six Mile Reservoir \u2026 drained. Dynamiters \u2026 vindicated from punishment. Bill to abandon the canals and murky reservoir \u2026 passed. No Compromise! History of the Reservoir War Mystery Dinner Theater wrapped up its 3 performances two weekends ago, April 14-16, 2023. With a stellar cast of community-minded individuals of Paulding County (along with family members) telling the story of one of its own historical events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The interactive Mystery Dinner Theater combined local Paulding County history with some mystery \u2013 who killed Private Reeves? \u2026 and a little comedy as well. The story took the guests along for the ride of what the residents of Antwerp and surrounding area were dealing with in 1887 with the Six Mile Reservoir \u2014 mud and mosquitoes, illness and death. The canals had all but been abandoned at this time in history because railroads were the new and improved means of commercial and recreational transportation, but manufacturers from Defiance (ptooey) who needed the timber from Paulding County for their furniture, wagon wheels and other hot commodities of the day (ie. cigar boxes), wanted the section of the Wabash & Erie Canal and Miami & Erie Canal to stay open, so the Six Mile Reservoir lobbyists influenced Congress to not pass the Geyer Bill that would have abandoned the Canals and the need for the Six Mile Reservoir.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Pictured here is (l-r) Emily Applegate (played by Renee Boss) asking Dr. Bazali (played by Jay Dachenhaus) some questions about why people are getting sick and dying in Antwerp. Was it the mosquitos? Was it the swamp fever? Was it the miasma? As Anna Lamb (played by Nancy White), Oliver Applegate (played by Tim Boss) and Francis Zuber (played by Ian Ferguson) watch from afar.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The evenings were full of witty banter and real telegraph correspondences from Ohio Gov. Foraker and C.A. Filckinger, as well as a proclamation from Major Bunker. Many guests were enlightened about a section of Ohio history they did not know about before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jane Nice originally wrote this mystery dinner theater play back in 2018 for the Paulding Chamber of Commerce, and since has modified some of the story to make room for new information that she found in her research about the historical event. \u201cMy goal in writing the script is to educate people about the important events of the Reservoir War of 1887 in Paulding County. It is very rewarding to stir up new conversations about the origin of\u00a0our county\u2019s motto while putting\u00a0the \u201cfun\u201d\u00a0in fundraiser,\u201d commented Jane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Place settings at the dinner theater complete with Program of the event as well as copies of the original Reservoir War song and an updated version written by Renee Boss.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Writer Jane Nice, director – Renee Boss, and Antwerp Chamber of Commerce committee members: Sue Fowler, Angel Steiner, and Denise Coleman began back in October of 2022. Monthly organizational meetings took place and in January 2023, cast members were contacted to start making plans for collection of costumes, props and commitments to participate in this play. Practices started in March 2023 and continued weekly with people coming straight from work out of town, from refereeing sporting events or traveling from farther out of town just to prepare to give the community a good show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvery time we perform the \u201cNo Compromise!\u201d dinner theater, I gain a new appreciation for volunteers,\u201d comments Jane Nice. \u201cThis production requires a large cast, and lots of people have to give up their time and help in many, many ways. Some traveled from far away to weekly practice to be in it, some grew out their hair and beards and came up with their own costumes, some figured out the sound system and video recording, some helped with making props and setting them up. It is true that volunteers make the world go round.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This play took a group effort coordinating schedules very carefully to make sure all took off without any glitches, Jane offered, \u201cThe Antwerp Chamber of Commerce,\u00a0the Antwerp Global Methodist Church\u00a0and Grant\u2019s Catering made the whole thing possible. I could not do it without Director Renee Boss. I think fast at home, alone, behind my desk, but she thinks fast on her feet.\u201d concluded Nice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After all the receipts and invoices were balanced from the weekend events, the Antwerp Chamber of Commerce totaled a nearly $5,000 profit that will go directly to the Downtown Mural Project! The project is set to begin in late summer 2023 and the mural will be put on the Friend Flooring building in downtown Antwerp.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Six Mile Reservoir \u2026 drained. Dynamiters \u2026 vindicated from punishment. Bill to abandon the canals and murky reservoir \u2026 passed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":40067,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,1395],"tags":[18378,7725,10102,18379,10165,11672,18081],"class_list":["post-40066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-entertainment","tag-ague","tag-antwerp-chamber-of-commerce","tag-jane-nice","tag-miasma","tag-no-compromise","tag-renee-boss","tag-six-mile-reservoir"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/no-compromise-play-1.jpg?fit=666%2C526&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2YQd9-aqe","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-27 07:55:44","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40066"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40070,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40066\/revisions\/40070"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}