Remembering Wadsworth:: From Pioneers to Streetcars

by Caesar A. Carrino

Battling wolves and wilderness, the settlers of 1814 were the first in a long line of daring and ingenious souls to call Wadsworth home. With a wry but gentle humor, former mayor Caesar A. Carrino regales his readers with tales of these colorful characters, including politically biased embalmers and a swindling tabloid entrepreneur whose ghost still haunts the streets of Wadsworth. Carrino spins a beguiling yarn as he chronicles the history of his city, from the sometimes tragic fate of early pioneers to the coming of a new century with rail, steam, coal and automobile.

128 pages, Paperback

First published March 30, 2009

Reviews

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, but more of a who's who of the Wadsworth elite. The same names are discussed through the book, ignoring some of the other points of interest in Wadsworth. The tale of the railroad worker that saved a little girl from being hit by a train (I forget his name at the moment), how the windows in the church are not stained glass but irreplaceable hand-painted glass. The history could have been more well rounded. Possibly having a map showing where different points of interest from the book were located could have been nice also. Descriptions like 200 feet from High St don't give the clearest idea of where the sites were located.

[Benjamin Shurance · Rating 4 out of 5]

Granted, I am biased by the author's recent death and by the nostalgia of staying here for two weeks visiting my childhood home, but I thought it was a delightful little collection of historical tidbits, full of context I was unaware of. I especially appreciated the history of the different Christian denominations that were present in the city's first century.

Props to the Wadsworth Public Library for their tribute exhibition which was up just a few days after Carrino's passing.