Reminisce
- Speakeasies, gangsters and violence, final part
- Adrienne McGee
- LIMA — Homestead operator Arthur Miller couldn’t seem to keep his nose clean — feuding with other illegal alcohol and slot machine runners — and the law caught up with him in 1933. He was found guilty of killing Roy E. Boggs,... Full story
- Speakeasies, gangsters and violence, part 2
- Adrienne McGee
- LIMA — The smoke cleared, albeit slowly, from that “fusilade of shots” at the Homestead in 1932.
The roadhouse, residence and filling station complex at Kibby Street and Bellefontaine Road was the scene of a shoot-up that left Joe... Full story
- Speakeasies, gangsters and violence, part 1
- Adrienne McGee
- LIMA — In the 1920s and ‘30s, an unassuming roadhouse on the east edge of Lima had more than its share of the action.
The Parks family farmed on the south side of Kibby Street at Bellefontaine Road, as it was then called. The... Full story
- Restaurants felled by fire
- Adrienne McGee
- LIMA — Main Street Bistro’s destruction by fire Tuesday was only the latest in a long string of business ruined by fire in Lima. A look back at some of the bigger events:
Old Barn Out Back
In the 1970s, the Brothers Four Country Store... Full story
- A stroll back to 1934
- Adrienne McGee
- LIMA — Everything about it is different.
The newspaper is huge. The print is tiny. The photos are black and white. There are an astonishing 14 stories on the cover alone.
Welcome to 1934.
This Lima Sunday News, the Oct. 7, 1934, edition,... Full story

- Relay Motors: Big plant, big trucks
- Adrienne McGee
- LIMA — Lima workers were ready when a breakthrough came to town.
The July 29, 1927, papers announced Lima’s Garford Motor Truck Co. merged with Relay Motors Inc., of Wabash, Ind. Relay had previously acquired Service Motors Inc., also... Full story
- Lima's stone quarries
- Adrienne McGee
- LIMA — It was tough, dirty work.
There was a need for stone as Lima became more industrialized. Lima’s sidewalks were once slabs of blue limestone, and the crushed stone was used for roads.
Quarries were dug along the Ottawa River, a... Full story
- A mortician's mummies
- Adrienne McGee
- LIMA — He was an average man, working hard to advance his business in Lima at the turn of the 20th century.
His name would hit the headlines, though, for a rather strange invention.
Floyd Cornelius Whitley was born June 7, 1877, in Rockford.... Full story
- Home sweet home: Siblings share memories of living in historic home
- Adrienne McGee
- The red brick farmhouse was a landmark on Lima’s east side.
Built by Josiah B. Roberts in the 1800s, the house stood at what is now the corner of Leonard and Lenore avenues. Roberts farmed about 200 acres that stretched from the current Lima... Full story

- Part one: The Roberts family farm
- Adrienne McGee
- LIMA — In the beginnings of Allen County, it took plain hard work to carve out a niche for yourself. One pioneer, Josiah B. Roberts, did just that.
Roberts was born Feb. 22, 1822, in Frankford, Va. When he was 18 years old, he moved with his... Full story