TED HENRY: Memorial service 8/22/2018, McMInnville Covenant Church

Ohio farm home in which Henry Lever, Linfield Athletics legend, born in 1883 still stands

If you are versed in Linfield College Athletics lore, you know the importance of Henry Lever (1883-1980 at age 96). (His photo from 1938 Linfield Oak Leaves yearbook.)

Lever Street (see street sign photo) on campus (running behind Memorial Stadium at Maxwell Field/Catdome) is named for him. And, in 1998 he was in the first “class” to be enshrined in the Linfield Athletics Hall of Fame (see photo of his Hall of Fame electronic tribute).

The year, 1930, Lever came to Linfield as coach of all sports (football, basketball, baseball, track & field) and athletic director was the start of Linfield Athletics as we know it today.

During his years, 1930-1949, at Linfield he coached/guided hundreds of Wildcat athletes and positively influenced them and others – athletes, coaches, faculty, staff, family and friends -- on or off the field, court or track.

Among the many Linfield students he coached were Paul Durham and Roy Helser.

He later hired Durham as Linfield football coach. That done, Lever served as athletic director one more school year and then turned the program over to Durham.

Among Durham’s hires as athletic director was Helser, who went on to coach baseball (head coach), basketball (co-head and head coach) and football (assistant coach) at the college. Later, Helser became Linfield athletic director.

Henry Lever was born in Loveland, Ohio, near Cincinnati, Oct. 4, 1883.

According to his biography, “He survived a near fatal burst appendix at age 15 with a life-saving operation on the kitchen table of his family's farm home.”

Read Henry Lever’s biography here:

http://wildcatville.blogspot.com/2008/06/biography-of-henry-w.html

Now (this was written in 2018) a light is shining on that very Lever family farm home, Henry Lever’s birthplace.

Brad Searcy and his family bought the Lever family farm home in Loveland in late May 2018. “We are still unpacking boxes,” Searcy told Wildcatville in August 2018.

(Note: The Lever family name was originally spelled “Leever.” This explains the use of Leever/Lever in following text.)

“I have had a general curiosity about who built it and what types of people lived here, and the old maps and the Wildcatville biography of Henry Lever really got me going on this project,” he said.

“The house is described as a 'farmhouse' but the 'farm' would have been fairly small according to the old maps, so I have wondered what the people here actually did for a living.

“The yard is really in rough condition with lots of big roots so I suspect that it has been relatively untouched for the most part,” said Searcy.

“My son and I used a metal detector in the back yard on Sunday to look for 'clues' to the former residents and immediately found a few items. Nothing of value but a couple of very old iron pieces.

“The house has some interesting characteristics such as a relatively large dining room with a high ceiling and two large bedrooms upstairs, but the kitchen has very low ceilings with a tiny bedroom (with a separate very worn wooden stairway) above.

“When I looked in the crawlspace, the kitchen (in back of the house, not visible in the photos) has different floor joists which look more like logs than cut lumber, so I have wondered if the kitchen is actually older than the rest of the house rather than an addition as we originally expected.  There are some very large, old trees in back of the house which I am sure were present when the house was built and during the Leever/Lever time.

“Ultimately I wanted to build a timeline of all of the former owners.  I have good evidence about the Leevers/Levers and some info about the late 1960s-early 1970s, plus assessor data from 1979-present.  Not sure how long the Levers/Levers stayed here. Believe I stumbled upon a census record or something that implied that they moved to another part of Loveland by 1920.  But I might be wrong on this. By that time, I believe that Henry Lever was already out of the house.”

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Included with this posting are two photos taken in July 2018 by Brad Searcy of the Leever/Lever house in Loveland, Ohio.

In addition, there are pieces of old maps he found online.

“Our (Leever/Lever house was built in 1875 according to the assessor's records but the previous owner claimed that is was closer to 1860 (no proof of this that I know of),” Searcy said.

Following are links provided by Searcy:

--1891 map of Henry Lever's boyhood house, now home of Searcy family. It’s at 6278 Branch Hill Guinea Road in Loveland, Ohio. He included a cropped and enlarged map of the area.

“You will see ‘Thos. Leever’ as the property owner. He was Henry's father, according to the "findagrave" links below and other online sources,” Brad Searcy said.

“The square by Thos. (Thomas) Lever is the (Searcy) house.

“There is also a ‘Henry W. Leever’ nearby on the map. This must have been Henry's grandfather as it was also there in a 1870 map (before Henry Lever was born). Also, the family name was originally spelled "Leever" as you can see but Thomas changed it to "Lever" at some point after his marriage (I read about this somewhere)”:

--From Atlas of Clermont County, Ohio, from actual surveys, digital.cincinattilibrary.org

http://digital.cincinnatilibrary.org/digital/collection/p16998coll9/id/5148/rec/14

--1870 map of the same area, showing a square that "could" be Searcy house, but showing as property of "HW Leever". Henry Lever was not born yet, and his father Thomas probably wasn't old enough to have his own house:

--From Atlas of Clermont County, Ohio, from actual surveys, digital.cincinattilibrary.org

http://digital.cincinnatilibrary.org/digital/collection/p16998coll9/id/5110/rec/13

--Henry Lever Wikipedia page:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_W._Lever

                                                 

--Another article of interest about Henry Lever:

http://library.la84.org/SportsLibrary/CFHSN/CFHSNv19/CFHSNv19n1a.pdf

--Information about grave of Thomas Lever, father of Henry Lever:

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/112906765/thomas-hamer-lever

--Information about grave of Henry Lever:

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/109080025/henry-work-lever

Brad Searcy said “there is some info online including a photo of our house in a book about Morgan's Raid, a Confederate army raid through this area in which Henry W. Leever (Henry's grandfather) lost a $7 saddle to the raiders. However, I do not believe it was actually taken from what is now the Searcy property, but rather from Henry's grandfather, formerly across the street.”

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Linfield 2018 football players on steps of Pioneer Hall

At Instagram / CatdomeAlumni, great photo posted 8/18/2018 of five 2018 Linfield football players on steps of Pioneer Hall.

Linfielder Ted Henry's obituary in Aug. 17, 2018, McMinnville N-R

Linfielder Ted Henry's obituary appears in Aug. 17, 2018, McMinnville News-Register/N-R. His memorial service will be 11 a.m. Aug. 22, 2018, in McMinnville. See obituary for details.

Linfield mourns loss of Hall of Famer Ted Henry: Athlete, coach, teacher and administrator

Story from Linfield Athletics:

https://golinfieldwildcats.com/news/2018/8/15/general-interest-linfield-mourns-the-loss-of-hall-of-famer-ted-henry.aspx

REMEMBERING TED HENRY, 1939-2018

Longtime football coach and Linfield College staff member Ted Henry passed away Tuesday, Aug. 14, 2018, in McMinnville at age 79.

"Ted was the longtime right-hand man to Ad Rutschman. He was intensely loyal to Ad and to Linfield, and just as importantly, to our overall Linfield family. We will miss this great man terribly," said Linfield director of athletics Garry Killgore.

A 2000 Linfield Athletics Hall of Fame inductee and 1960 Linfield graduate, Henry was a fixture on Rutschman's coaching staff during a remarkable run of success in the 1980s that included three NAIA national championships. In total, he was offensive coordinator and line coach for 23 seasons under Rutschman and assisted the football program with recruiting as time allowed. In 1991, he retired from coaching alongside Rutschman. Henry also spent five seasons as Linfield's head wrestling coach.

Linfield football coach Joseph Smith, who played under Rutschman and Henry in the early 1990s, called Henry "a rock…someone who is ever consistent; someone who you can absolutely count upon. He is the epitome of the high output yet low ego character trait that defines the best of Linfield Football."

Henry played and learned the game's finer points under Hall of Fame coach Paul Durham in the late 1950s. A team captain, he played the defensive middle guard position and was named a second team Little All-West Coast selection. His college career began at Boise Junior College (now Boise State) where he played football for two years before transferring to Linfield.

Henry first met Rutschman, a 1954 Linfield graduate, when interviewing for a Hillsboro High School freshman football coaching and math teaching job. The next year, he was promoted to varsity line coach. Hillsboro won the 1966 state championship and reached the semifinals in 1967 with Rutschman as coach and Henry assisting.

In 1968, Rutschman succeeded Durham as Wildcats football coach and the following year, Henry came to Linfield to teach mathematics and be an assistant football coach. He eventually became the college's director of administrative computing, holding that position until his full retirement in 2004.

"It was a true honor to have been coached by Coach Henry. It was an even greater honor to consider him a mentor and friend," said Smith. "I looked forward to discussing our games with him at the Covenant Church on Sundays. His wisdom and cut to the quick insight was invaluable to me, as was his example of to how to live an impactful life. His relationship with Mrs. Henry is to be celebrated. Together they were quite a team. He was a strong man of faith. Few men can surpass Coach Henry in living up to the standard of being a true Man of Action and a Wall for Those in Need. We are going to miss him a lot."

At the time of his Hall of Fame induction, Henry looked back on his Linfield coaching career and said, "I am most proud of being a part of a program that emphasized building character and teaching players how to be successful in life."

Henry remained loyal to Linfield until his death, continuing to attend home football games with his wife, Elsie, and sit in the staff section, even after a stroke several years ago hindered his mobility. He also was a longtime member of the Linfield Athletics Hall of Fame Selection Committee.

Ted is survived by Elsie '89, son Mark '81, and daughter Lori. The Henrys would have marked 60 years of marriage on September 6.

Linfield Baseball story from May 15, 1983, Salem Statesman-Journal

Here you will see part of the story with the other part cut off. To see entire story, click on the clipping. 

Lever Street on Linfield campus honors Henry Lever, longtime Linfield coach/atheltic director

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Lever Street sign on Linfield campus. 

Photo taken in 2018.
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Legends include Linfielders Art Larrance, Ad Rutschman -- '10 Grands on the Diamond' to raise funds for nonprofits: Event perfect pitch for music, sports fans

'10 Grands on the Diamond' to raise funds for nonprofits: Event perfect pitch for music, sports fans

By Steve Brandon, 

Portland Tribune

Tue., August 7, 2018

Ten grand pianos (and pianists). Fourteen local baseball (and softball) legends. One sparkling ballpark and one fireworks show. And more.

That's what's on deck for music and sports fans — and it's happening on Saturday, Aug. 11, at Ron Tonkin Field.

Michael Allen Harrison, Portland composer, pianist and baseball fan, is bringing "10 Grands on the Diamond" to the home of the minor-league Hillsboro Hops.

The special evening of baseball-themed music and food will raise funds for Friends of Baseball, a Portland nonprofit; Harrison's Play It Forward program, which provides instruments and music lessons for underserved youth; and Tigard Rotary's scholarship program.

The 10 Grands event, which starts at 7 p.m., also will serve as the inaugural induction to the Friends of Baseball Oregon Baseball Legends. Attending fans will honor these attending inductees, in alphabetical order:

• Mike Clopton, longtime baseball coach at Wilson and Jackson high schools.

• Jack Dunn, former head baseball coach at Portland State and Cleveland and Wilson high schools.

• Joe Etzel, former head baseball coach at the University of Portland (and Central Catholic High), who also served as the Pilots' athletic director.

• Dave Gasser, another all-time prep baseball coaching wins leader, at Madison and Astoria high schools.

• Jerry Gatto, who coached at Cleveland High and Lewis & Clark College and has been active in year-round baseball and fundraising for various programs.

• Jim Joyce, a major league umpire from 1987-2016.

• Art Larrance, a former player at Hillsboro High and Linfield College who has been a longtime supporter of local baseball.

• Teri Mariani, whose 29 PSU softball teams won 663 games and has had five Hall of Fame inductions.

• Dick McClain, former prep and college baseball coach whose 1969 American Legion team won the world championship.

• Ad Rutschman, legendary baseball and football coach and administrator in high school athletics and for many years at Linfield.

• Dale Scott, a MLB umpire from 1986-2017.

• Sue Seaver, who has been involved in District 4 Little League and other softball endeavors for more than 30 years, serving as tournament director of the Little League Softball World Series at Alpenrose Stadium for 15 years.

• Tom Trebelhorn, who went from his playing days at Cleveland High to a career in teaching, coaching and managing, with stints as skipper of the Milwaukee Brewers and Chicago Cubs.

• Rick Wise, a major league pitcher for 18 seasons who came out of youth baseball in Northeast Program and then starred for Madison High.

Harrison has been doing 10 Grands events in Portland for 18 years, packing the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall and other venues, through the Snowman Foundation he created to assist local youngsters in their musical pursuits.

The Aug. 11 show will take place on Harrison's 60th birthday.

Friends of Baseball, formed in 2005, has helped provide nearly $3 million in grants, scholarship, field restoration and equipment, while introducing or teaching baseball to more than 40,000 youngsters, mostly in the Portland area.

The 10 pianos will be in center field at Ron Tonkin Field, with reserved seating in the infield.

Among those assisting Harrison musically will be jazz legend Tom Grant, Mac and Hailey Potts, John Nilsen, Portland Police Sgt. Jim Quakenbush, and youth pianists Brendan Brewer, Trevor Natiuk, JJ and Gabriel Gui, Raley Schweinfurth, and Cayla and Ashley Bleoaja.

Also performing will be vocalists Julianne Johnson, Molly Parker, Erin Tamblyn and Jeff Lee, along with violinist Tanner Johnson and Haley Johnsen from "American Idol."

Legendary Trail Blazers broadcaster Bill Schonely will kick off the show, leading the crowd in a rendition of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game."

A synchronized musical fireworks finale from behind the center-field fence will cap the night.

Ticket prices start at $15 for general admission. Preferred seats start at $29.

For tickets and more information, go to michaelallenharrison.com and friendsofbaseball.org.

REV. EDWARD COFFIN ANDERSON AND HIS CONNECTION TO LINFIELD COLLEGE

Shown in some publications/listings/stories as E. C. Anderson.

E. C. = Edward Coffin

REV. EDWARD COFFIN ANDERSON was McMinnville College president, 1881-1887. McMinnville College became Linfield College in 1922.

Information about the Rev. Anderson and Anderson family follows.

(In case you wonder, apparently Edward Coffin Anderson NOT related to Elam J. Anderson, who served as Linfield College president, 1932-1938. Elam J. Anderson was a great-uncle of Gordon C. Bjork, Linfield president, 1968-1974.)

=EDWARD COFFIN ANDERSON (served as president of Kansas’ Ottawa University, 1821-1890)

AN OTTAWA UNIVERSITY (Ottawa, Kansas) PRESIDENT BIOGRAPHY

http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf587004fn/admin/#bioghist-1.8.5

Edward Coffin Anderson After his student years, both in the United States and in Europe, he began his long literary life. He contributed to various literary publications, the most notable of which was THE DIAL. 

Through his contributions to THE DIAL, he became a friend of Francis Fisher Browne, the Editor, and this long and satisfying friendship can be traced through the Browne letters contained in the collection.

Edward Coffin Anderson, the first member of the family for whom there are extensive records, was born on Prince Edward Island, Maritime Provinces, Canada, in 1821, the fourth of thirteen children. His grandfather, John Anderson, had migrated to North America from Scotland with his brother, David, and son, David. David Anderson, the son, married Miss Jeanette Coffin, whose father had come to Prince Edward Island from Nantucket. 

Edward Coffin Anderson received his education in Nova Scotia at Acadia College, and later went to Newton Seminary near Boston for further theological study. While he was attending Acadia College at Wolfville, Nova Scotia, he met Miss Helen Best, a teacher in a school for girls.

The Best Family was also of Scottish descent. Helen's mother, Isabella Playfair, was a daughter of Robert Lawyer Playfair and a niece of John Playfair, the great mathematician of the University of Edinburgh. Her mother, Margaret McNevin was said to have been a brilliant and clever woman. 

When John Playfair was contemplating marriage, a friend advised, If you marry Margaret McNevin, all your children will be gifted. Isabella was educated at a school for young ladies conducted by her two aunts in Edinburgh. At sixteen she married Henry Best, of the British Navy, and they settled in Nova Scotia. They had thirteen children. Later, to help out the family finances, she established a school for girls in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. Isabella, herself, served as headmistress and two of her daughters, including Helen Best, were teachers in the school.

In 1850, Helen Best became the wife of Edward Coffin Anderson and later that same year the young couple emigrated to the United States where they lived for the rest of their lives. Anderson, when he finished his training at Newton Seminary, was ordained in the Baptist Church and began his long career of preaching and teaching. 

His first appointment was at Kalamazoo, Michigan. Edward and Helen Anderson had three sons, Melville Best Anderson, Robert Playfair Anderson (who died in infancy), and Edward Playfair Anderson. In January, 1875 the interior of the only building on the Ottawa campus was destroyed by fire. It was rebuilt by the citizens of Ottawa in only 90 days.4 Classes were held at city hall until the repair was finished

From Kalamazoo, the family went to Newton Center, Massachusetts, to Milford, New Hampshire, and back to Kalamazoo where Mr. Anderson was professor of Classical Languages and acting president of Kalamazoo Baptist College. From Kalamazoo, they went to Margett, Michigan where Anderson was pastor. In 1866, the Andersons went to Portland, Oregon where Anderson assumed the post of pastor of the Baptist Church, and from there he went to San Jose, California. After a short time in San Jose, the family returned to the East coast, to Groveland, Massachusetts, where Mr. Anderson was pastor and also principal of Highlands Academy in Petersburg, Massachusetts. 

He became principal of Ottawa College in Ottawa, Kansas, and pastor of Lake City Baptist Church in Lake City, Minnesota. About 1880, he became president of McMinnville College, McMinnville, Oregon, a post he held for seven years. In 1887, he had a stroke, and died three years later, in 1890, at the home of his son, Edward Playfair Anderson, in Lansing, Michigan.

The first son of Edward Coffin and Helen Best Anderson, he was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1851. He attended Cornell University where, to a great extent, he worked his own way.

...................

=Anderson, Edward Coffin, 1821-1890.

Born 7 May 1821 - Prince Edward Island, Canada

Died 29 Jan 1890 (aged 68) Michigan, USA

Source: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/19279090/edward-coffin-anderson

............

 =At Stanford University. Libraries. Dept. of Special Collections and University Archives:

Anderson “Family of Scottish-English origins which came to the United States in the middle of the nineteenth century. The family settled on the East Coast, later moving West; the Andersons contributed to society in the fields of theology, education and literature. Melville Best Anderson was an author, translator and teacher whose particular interest was the work of Dante. From 1891-1910, he taught in the English Department at Stanford University, serving as first chairman of the department."

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MILES DAVIS: ‘LINFIELD PRESIDENT MAKES MOVE FROM EAST TO WEST’

Story by Starla Pointer. Photo by Marcus Larson.

McMinnville News-Register/N-R, Aug 2, 2018

Soon after new Linfield College president Miles Davis announced his plans to colleagues at his former school, Shenandoah University in Virginia, he started hearing about Oregon’s climate.

Rain, specifically. Everyone warned him about how wet he’d be after he moved West.

Davis arrived in McMinnville in July to find drying, extremely hot weather. Back in Virginia, his friends were experiencing a three-week bout of rain.

The culture, as well as the climate, is different than he experienced on the East Coast, he said. Oregon is a little less formal, somewhat more relaxed.

“I’m a bit less inclined to wear a tie here,” he said.

Davis saw an interesting example of the difference between Willamette Valley culture and that of the East Coast when he attended the International Pinot Noir Celebration on campus in July.

Guests at a similar event in the East would be wearing seersucker or linen suits and dressy gowns with fancy hats, he said. Here, they wore a range of Northwest attire, from shorts to jeans to sundresses, mostly with bare heads.

As a former Virginian, he has a collection of hats to wear at parties and other gatherings, he said. Now he plans to add a Linfield baseball cap and maybe a cowboy hat, as well.

“But my hats are not just about form; they’re about function,” he joked, noting that he needs them to keep the sun off his smooth scalp.

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More about McMinnville house at 436 SE Baker

Photo Aug 2017 Google Maps

COMMENT

On Aug. 3, 2018, Linfielder Ruben Contreras Jr., commented at/about Mac News Facebook page Aug. 3, 2018 posting, "As I recall Dr. Northup came to the college c. 1890. He taught a course called Evidences of Christanity (among many others I'm sure.) At the end of the Evidences course his last assignment began with the question "do you believe it?" If so, he said "live it." 

He wore a couple different toupees, one apparently for more formal occasions. Somehow along the way he was referred to as "old baldy." He served both as McMinnville Mayor, and as an officer, I believe, at Oregon Mutual Insurance. Sadly the 1930s Northup Library building dedicated to this very historic college figure was renamed in recent years. 

The removal of Dr. Northup's name from the college's first stand-alone library building (previously it was housed in Pioneer Hall) was a very sad day for the college. His neice, Francis Northup, spent decades working at the Northup Library, retiring in recent years, I believe."

HISTORY OF THE HOUSE

Before it was the Northup house at 436 SE Baker, it was apparently home of McMinnville College President  Rev. E.C. (Edward Coffin) Anderson (served 1881-1887, not to be confused with President Elam J. Anderson, served 1932-1938). Later, this was the home of Linfielders Roy Deane "Hap" and Marian Mahaffey. He was the long-serving head of Linfield forensic program, including serving as Linfield speech team coach. He also headed the college's drama department. She was best known as long time owner/operator of Lon Dee Flowers, located 103 SE Baker, in a building which is now home of Hopscotch Toys.

More Mahaffey info here:

http://wildcatville.blogspot.com/2012/01/mahaffey-on-campus-and-off.html

https://www.linfield.edu/tca/communication-arts-program/forensics/mahaffey-memorial-forensics-tournament.html

About the house at 436 SE Baker, McMinnville, the Historic Resource Survey City of McMinnville Yamhill County, Oregon said in 1980:

"This house is a large two and one-half story building of Italianate styling.  It is of wood frame construction with a concrete foundation.  The house is basically square with a medium pitched hipped roof with hipped dormers.  The cornice line is boxed with brackets.  The home is decorated by an open one-story porch in front, pilasters at the corners, and simple shelf cornices on the window moldings.  The front door is recessed into the house two feet; the walls of the recess feature Italianate panels.  There is a gabled one-story extension on the rear of the home which looks to be about the same age as the home itself.  It has irregular window bays on the northern elevation; windows are more regularly sized and spaced on the other sides.  The house is in need of some repair and is in fair condition.

"This house was the home of one of Linfield’s first presidents, Dr. Anderson.  Dean of the College, Emanuel Northup lived here in 1912.  The house was used for a fraternity house for a time.  The Roy Mahaffeys bought it from Linfield College around 1950.  According to Dr. Mahaffey, the basement, the back ell, and the third floor dormers were all added long after the house was built.  Dr. Mahaffey is a graduate and long-time professor at Linfield.

"One of McMinnville’s older historic resources, this home sits in a somewhat threatened position.  South Baker is a busy throughway, part of Highway 99W."

Wildcats Miles Davis and Ad Rutschman 8/2/2018

Wildcats: Miles Davis, Linfield President, and Ad Rutschman, Linfield Athletic Director/Coach Emeritus, at Linfield Wildcat Open golf in Aloha, Ore., 8/2/2018. Photo posted on Instagram by catdomealumni.