Out of the Clock Tower

Hello and welcome to the Greene County Archives' blog, "Out of the Clock Tower". Please join us as we share information on archival issues, news, special events, and highlights from our collection.

Before the archives program began in Greene County in 1996, permanent records were stored in every conceivable space, in basements, garages, and closets. Usually they were in boxes of various shapes and sizes, although seldom adequately labeled, but occasionally they were just in loose piles of books and papers. Most notable were the old records stuffed into the clock tower of the County Courthouse, where they shared their home with pigeon droppings.

Now, there is a clean, environmentally controlled, well appointed location for the county archives, where our historical records are housed in standard sized boxes on steel shelves. We have taken note of their journey in the name for our blog.

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Dec 01

Greene County VIP - Louise Geiger Weiss

Posted on December 1, 2021 at 1:29 PM by Elise Kelly

As we welcome the first week of December, we are featuring our next Greene County VIP – Louise Geiger Weiss.

Born of German immigrants in Xenia, Ohio, Louise Geiger completed her education through the eighth grade (See Fig. 1). This was common at the time considering only fifty-one percent of children ages five to nineteen attended school. Adolescents began their adult life much sooner. When Louise was eighteen, she married Paul Weiss in 1902 (See Fig. 2). The couple and their children, Kenneth, Mary, and Mabel, moved to 406 Phillips Street in the Village of Yellow Springs after Paul Weiss purchased a general store on Xenia Avenue in the Village (See Figs. 3 & 4). A year later, their fourth child, Esther was born.

Fig. 1 Louise Geiger Weiss 1940 Census Record (JPG)

Fig. 1 Federal Census Record of 1940, Greene County, Ohio (via Ancestry.com)

Fig. 2 Louise Geiger Marriage Record (JPG)

Fig. 2 Greene County Marriage Record, 1902 (Greene County Archives)

Fig. 3 Louise G. Weiss house in yellow springs (JPG)

Fig. 3 406 Phillips Street in Yellow Springs (Greene County Auditor – Property Search)

Fig. 4 General Store photo - (JPG)

Fig. 4 Photo of Paul Weiss’ General Store on Xenia Ave. in Yellow Springs (via FindaGrave.com)

As the family’s homemaker, Louise managed the home and children with care and pride. When the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified, which granted American women the right to vote in 1920, Louise Geiger Weiss became the first woman to cast her vote in Yellow Springs (See Fig. 5). Just two years after this remarkable honor, tragedy struck when Louise and Paul’s son, Kenneth, died of injuries from a basketball game played at Antioch College (See Fig. 6) Courageously, Louise carried on and she, along with her daughters, became active members of the First Presbyterian Church in Yellow Springs. At the age of seventy-five in 1959, Louise died (See Figs. 7 & 8). She’s buried at Glen Forest Cemetery in Yellow Springs beside her husband and two of her children.

Fig. 5 Votes for Women (JPG)