Several years ago, former Orrville High School teacher Ned Hostetler wrote about the various U.S. presidents who traveled through Orrville.
“The Sept. 7, 1880, edition of the Orrville paper,” Hostetler said, “printed a small item about President Rutherford B. Hays, his wife, Lucy, and General William T. Sherman traveling west through town. About a month later, on Oct. 12, 1880, a small item told about former President Ulysses S. Grant and his wife, Julia, traveling east through Orrville.
“The year 1912 was an amazing one for Orrville residents,” Hostetler pointed out. “All the major candidates for President stopped in town and spoke. In March the Courier reported that President William Howard Taft was met by a large crowd that gathered at the depot. Then in May, former President Theodore Roosevelt, who was also campaigning for the Republicans, stopped in town. About three weeks before the election that year, Gov. Woodrow Wilson of New Jersey, the Democratic candidate fo