Historical Ada

By Leland Crouse
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Borrowed from Small Town Sampler
Betty Miller, August 30, 1989
Thomas Shanks
In 157 years most of the early farms in Liberty Township have changed owners. A few, however, have been passed down through the generations, and descendants of some of the early settlers still grow crops on the land their ancestors cleared. One of these farms is owned by Bob and Anna Mary Shanks on County Road 65. At some time in their lives, seven generations of the Shanks family have called this home.

By Leland Crouse
[email protected]
Art and Alice Cotner, St. Rt. 309, Ada, have vivid memories of the Odeon Theatre on Ada’s North Main Street. Both Mr. and Mrs. Cotner worked at the Odeon in the mid-1920’s. Art was hired by theatre owner Ralph Rhoades to operate the projection room when he was a sophomore in high school. Cotner continued working at the theatre, after it was sold to Carl Moore, until his graduation from college in 1929.