‘It’s a warm day here at Thompson Stadium! The fans are packed in like sardines for this inter-county matchup. The Huntsburg Rangers are up on the home team in this ninth and final inning….uh oh, up to the plate steps veteran Ranger outfielder Ty Pilarczyk in his final season before retirement…..here comes the pitch, a high fast ball—it’s a hit! A long, arching line drive! The crowd is on its feet! It’s going, goooiiinnngggg, GOOOOONE!’ Well, at least that’s how I choose to remember it….
The town of Thompson will always hold a special spot in my childhood memories. It was on their little league baseball diamond that this Huntsburg slugger hit his first and last home runs. Mind you, their fence may have been a little closer than other fields in those days, and the first homer was off of a tee and an in-the-park—but in my mind, that all seems extremely irrelevant.
Thompson is Geauga County’s northernmost township, earning it the nickname, ‘the chimney’ (assuming Geauga’s shape roughly resembles that of a house). It was first settled in 1800 by a Dr. Isaac Palmer. It is said that Dr. Palmer came to Thompson with his wife by boat from Buffalo to Fairport, and then up the Grand River to a point parallel with Thompson. The town is named after a Matthew Thompson, one of the original land speculators that purchased his portion from the Connecticut Land Company. The irony is that it appears Mr. Thompson may have never set foot in the very town that bears his name!
By 1816, there were nine families settled in the boundaries,
and in 1817, Thompson became an official township.
Its greatest physical features are the ledges of Sharon Conglomerate sandstone that run parallel and to the east of route 528. Early settlers soon realized the economic value of the ledges, and quarries were established on the north end where the stone was more tightly-knit. Stone from these operations was used in many construction projects all over the surrounding area.
Chrysostom Sidley was an employee of one of these original quarries. When the quarry owner died in 1884, ‘Chrys’ purchased all the equipment from the estate sale and went into bridge building and general contracting. Years later, in 1932, R.W. Sidley began a gravel business with a homemade delivery trailer. Today, R.W. Sidley Inc., known to the locals as Sidley’s, is the major business of the township, mining sand and gravel from the southern end of the ledges, along with delivering concrete, making precast units, and selling large trucks, masonry, and landscape supplies.
The ledges were also appreciated from another point of view—their physical and biological beauty. As early as 1868, a hotel was constructed to house tourists who came to see the area. In 1926, Thompson’s Men’s Club petitioned the state of Ohio to make the ledges a state park. Apparently, funds were appropriated, but the Great Depression brought the project to a screeching halt. In 1940, the idea was resurrected by the town’s Grange, and after a vote, the first park district in Geauga County was created.
Thompson also had a very noteworthy resident—a man by the name of Charles Hall. Mr. Hall was famous for developing the commercial process of making aluminum. It is said that when he died in 1914, his estate was valued at nearly $45,000,000.
Today, you can explore the ledges, bring a lunch, and enjoy Thompson’s town square (that, like so many Geauga towns, is a prime indicator of its New England roots), visit some wineries to the north, watch drag racing at Thompson Raceway to the south, or simply ramble around the back roads and enjoy the beautiful rural scenery.
For more information, make sure to visit Thompson Township’s web page.
And if you happen to stop by the baseball fields, listen closely—I think the chorus of cheers may still be echoing……
Author: Ty Pilarczyk
Ty is the president of the Huntsburg Historical Society, and has lived in Huntsburg most of his life. When he is not designing, installing, and maintaining landscapes for the family construction business, Ty enjoys vegetable gardening, restoring and collecting old pressure lanterns, and spending time with his family.