Community Spotlight: Charming hamlet of Kidron is Amish tourist attraction

When it comes to small, Kidron and its newest tourist attraction, Sonnenberg

Village, surely fall among the smallest combined areas in Ohio, but you wouldn’t know that when talking with those who live in the quiet hamlet.

Wayne County Sheriff Travis Hutchinson noted that the hamlet is only 0.0378 part of a square mile while the moved and refurbished Sonnenberg Village just north of Kidron is situated on just 5.15 acres off Hackett Road.

However, residents claim Kidron as their hometown even though their residences would then make the town 13 to 14 square miles, community leaders said recently.

Location

Located in the southwest corner of Wayne County’s Sugar Creek Township, Kidron is an Amish tourist attraction filled with people viewing the town’s historic sites, buying needed material and supplies for their homes or work, or just seeking peace and tranquility  except for the often heard clip-clop of horses and buggies so prevalent in the  surrounding rolling hills.

Communities bordering Kidron include Dalton to the northeast, Mount Eaton to the southeast, Apple Creek to the west and Fredericksburg to the southwest. U.S. 30 runs east and west just north of Kidron, and County Road 52 (Kidron Road) runs north and south through Kidron. State Route 250 is just south of the community, which is considered the largest Amish tourism center in Wayne County.

History

Kidron was originally settled in 1819 by Swiss Mennonites wishing to escape religious persecution and poor farming conditions in the Sonnenberg area of Switzerland. They were known as “the quiet people in the country.” Reaching America, they named their land across Kidron Road from Lehman’s Hardware as Sonnenberg, and the connotation of “quiet people” applied here, too. The name was changed from Sonnenberg to Kidron about 1834.

Highlights

• Sonnenberg Village is the community’s newest attraction, with nine moved and refurbished structures on display at 13497 Hackett Road just south of U.S. 30 and Kidron Road. Retired Wayne County Judge Ray Leisy is the venture’s project manager, who said most of the reconstruction has been completed.

On-site buildings and their original construction dates are: The Sonnenberg Welcome Center, formerly the Third Sonnenberg Church built in 1907; The Sommer/Bixler House, (1832); The Moser Building (1915), which will be a printing shop when finished; The Albertson/Zuercher House (1833); Tschantz Log Cabin (1824); Lehman Spring House (1854); Lehman House (1838); the Gerber/Nussbaum Barn (1847); and the Sommer Building (1906) with an overhead sign for the F.R. Saurer Blacksmith Shop.

• The village will be open Aug. 12 and 13, as the Kidron Community Historical Society has a special celebration marking its 45th anniversary and Homecoming Day at the Kidron-Sonnenberg Heritage Center and Museum at 13153 Emerson Road. The historical society was founded in 1977 and is in the Heritage Center, where Dick Wolf is the director. Wayne Lichty was the society president for over 30 years. Art Neuenschwander is the current president.

Homecoming festivities begin at 7 p.m. Aug. 12 at the barn in Sonnenberg Village, featuring Honeytown folk band. A $5 donation is suggested for concertgoers and a similar donation is suggested for adults and teens attending all the Aug. 13 events from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Children 12 and under are free.

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At 11 a.m. Aug. 13, the Sonnenberg Children’s Theater group will present a historical drama, followed at noon by historical interpreters portraying Swiss settlers Katherine and Isaac Sommers, who were among original settlers of Kidron. An old-fashioned baseball game at 1 p.m. will feature an Amish team playing the Smithville Stars. There also will be buggy rides, a Kinder Corner with historical games and other activities.

• Gerber's Poultry at 4889 Kidron Road is a family-owned and -operated company recognized by many as the community’s largest business and employer. Dwight and Melva Gerber began processing chicken and selling their products from their home farm to residents in 1952, following Dwight’s motto: “Quality Worth Crowing About.”

Now in the 70th year of production, Gerber’s has 150 farms, 500 employees and around 3 million chickens eating 77 acres of corn and 35 acres of soybeans daily. Members of the family’s third generation now oversee the business and market their chicken as Gerber’s Amish Farm Chicken, featuring whole chickens, cut-up chicken parts and boneless breasts and thighs.

• Another Kidron landmark business is Shisler’s Cheese House at the corner of Kidron Road and U.S. Route 20. Fred Biery built his cheese house there in 1951 and sold it in 1958 to Rita Shisler’s father-in-law, John Shisler, who originated Shisler’s. Rita started work there in 1963 and has been there ever since with the assistance of sons Dennis and D.J.

Shisler’s sells 80 varieties of cheese from the little store in front of her home, including 2,000 pounds of Swiss cheese a week along with jams, jellies, sandwiches and all kinds of snacking goodies that delight tourists riding charter buses to see Amish country.

“People go to Smucker’s, Lehman’s Hardware and here,” she said. “We have a lot of bus tours that stop here from all over the country.”

• Lehman’s Hardware at 4779 Kidron Road is a major attraction in Ohio Amish country that offers non-electric household goods and has grown into an international business. Founded in 1955, the store is operated by Galen Lehman and owned by HRM Enterprises, which also runs Hartville Hardware.

*The Kidron Auction at 4885 Kidron Road got its start in 1923 when auctioneer S.C. “Cy” Sprunger bought it for $5 from a group of farmers who started an auction in 1918 and then sold it five years later. The Kidron Auction, owned and operated by John and Jedd Sprunger, is Ohio’s oldest livestock market. Hay, straw and livestock auctions are held every Thursday, attracting hundreds of buyers and sellers to the hamlet and the town’s other businesses.

• Kidron Town & Country has been a family-owned business since 1926 and is a full-service grocery and country store. Besides the grocery business, the store has a restaurant, a pharmacy, shoes and apparel. Current owners are Larry and Ranee Yoder, who purchased the business in 2016 from the Gerber family to continue meeting the needs of residents of Kidron and beyond.

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• The Mennonite Central Committee thrift store at 4080 Kidron Road is an example of caring and giving as 325 volunteers and 4½ paid staff give of their time to accept donated items of all kinds, including quilts, and sell the merchandise to aid the organization’s work in 57 countries, according to Kidron MCC Director Michael Amstutz. Of funds raised, 90% goes to MCC and the other 10% goes to local agencies doing relief, development and peace projects. The store has 14 major departments visited annually by an average of 74,000 contributors.

About Kidron area

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Community Spotlight: Kidron is Amish tourist attraction