Paula Hendricks of Ellsworth displays her 1951 Allis Chalmers tractor that has been completely restored.

ELLSWORTH — Paula Hendricks lives and breathes history, from her numerous collections to her involvement in the Ellsworth Historical Society.

She finds history to be fascinating and loves collecting pieces from the past that show how people used to live and the various devices they used in daily life.

Hendricks grew up on the family farm in Ellsworth and graduated from Western Reserve High School in 1986. She later went to ITT Technical College and earned a degree in business management and accounting.

She began collecting at an early age, and through the efforts of her family, who also were collectors of history.

“I took my high school graduation money to my first auction and bought my great-grandfather’s 1939 Allis Chalmers WC and drove it home,” she said. “Harry Roessler (my great-grandfather) purchased it brand new in 1939 from Bare Farm Equipment in Ellsworth. I take that one to the Canfield Fair with its original paint and I can start it with the crank.”

Hendricks said her grandfather plowed the fields with it right up to the day it was parked. She said it has that original paint job and she does not plan to paint it because she prefers to keep it with the original look. However, she does have a 1951 Allis Chalmers that has been restored.

“The 1951 is my tractor, but has no family history,” she said. “It is shiny and it is fully restored. As to the comparison of the 1951 and 1939, in the tractor world we call this comparison work clothes versus church clothes. Work clothes being the tractor in its original condition with original paint, and church clothes being all prettied up and painted to look new.”

Hendricks’ tractors are just the beginning of what she collects. She also enjoys hit-and-miss engines and scales. At a recent auction, she filled a trailer with historic old engines and scales that could have been used around railroad stations or in industries.

Hendricks is used to keeping historic items from her past. She even has her first car — a 1972 Dodge Charger. The car was actually a combination of two vehicles. She said a Florida car was purchased that had a blown motor. A second Charger was located with a good motor and a rusty body and frame. The good motor was put into the Florida Charger and Hendricks had the car she wanted. Originally, the car was blue when she got it at age 15.

“It is plum crazy purple now,” she said.

Among her many other collectibles are antique postcards, antique Valentine’s Day cards, antique tools, a uranium / Vaseline glass collection, maps and antique anything that is related to Ellsworth. Some of her collections have been donated to the Ellsworth Historical Society.

The Society itself is on her parents’ property on Western Reserve Road. Her mother, Nancy Hendricks, used to have a dog breeding kennel on the property. It was heated and had plenty of indoor space and outside runs for the dogs.

Since that part of the farm ended, the building was donated for use by the Ellsworth Historical Society after it was founded in 1996. Hendricks is a charter member of the society and served a term as president. She remains active with the society and is always looking to preserve segments of Ellsworth history.

One of the society’s donations is a cabinet from the Templin Seed Company of Ellsworth. The company was at one time the largest by-mail seed company in the nation. Hendricks said the business suffered a bad fire many years ago and very little survived.

The company did have several cabinets with drawers where the company seed catalogs were kept. Hendricks has one of the cabinets and the other is now part of the Ellsworth Historical Society’s collection.

“It is an important part of Ellsworth history,” she said.

While she has her own collections and a farm to run with her husband Bill, she also finds time to care for her bee hives. Hendricks is a bee keeper and collects enough honey to sell at fairs and festivals each year. While all that takes time, she still manages to donate time to the historical society and has even taken on a huge challenge that is actually a joint effort between the Ellsworth Historical Society and the Canfield Historical Society.

Hendricks said it involves the Mahoning Dispatch newspaper, which served the county and has a great deal of Ellsworth news in its pages. The newspaper was in circulation from 1877 to 1968, being owned and operated by three generations of the Fowler family. The Fowler family knew the historic significance of the newspapers and kept a copy of every issue. In the 1980s, Ralph Fowler joined the Ohio Historical Newspaper Preservation Project with the goal to microfilm all issues of the Dispatch, according to Hendricks.

She said in 2014, the Ellsworth and Canfield societies came together and raised the funds to purchase a large flatbed scanner and the companion equipment so the Mahoning Dispatch could be scanned as electronic copies.

“We are not just scanning to digitize these editions,” Hendricks said, “but this is the very last time these newspapers will be handled in their lifetime. They will be scanned, then sealed in a proper plastic sleeve forever.”

Hendricks said she gets to spend time on the scanner, which is a long process. The papers must be scanned, then checked by several people to compare the original paper edition. This ensures the entire edition is scanned and it is complete before the sealing process. It is very time consuming and is an ongoing effort.

“There are 91 years of that newspaper,” she said. “We are now at 31 years scanned and boxed. We have 10 volumes online for the public to see.”

Hendricks said the completed files can be seen at ohiomemory.org.

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