This and That

Published:  Sunday, August 9, 2009 (7 months, 1 week ago)
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The Delphos Mushroom Plant in days gone by.An icon is gone. No longer, when someone asks for directions north of Delphos, can we say “Go to the Mushroom Plant and turn right or turn left and cross the bridge.” People didn’t always know where Road U-20 was but they knew where the Mushroom Plant was.
Several buildings made up the mushroom plant but this all came to an abrupt end on Sunday afternoon 12 July 2009. Ed Klima is the present owner of the property. Ed and his brothers were in the process of tearing the plant down. To their surprise, the end came when they didn’t plan for it to happen. The guys were burning wooden remnants behind the brick structure when the wind shifted and the blaze moved to what was left of the landmark structure. Fort Jennings, Delphos and Ottoville fire departments responded at approximately 5:45 p.m. The plant was fully engulfed in flames. Klima and his sister Annette Brown expressed their thanks to the firemen for the quick response of all three fire departments. The plant stood just across the Putnam County line in Jennings Township.
Leo Allemeier started the Delphos Mushroom Company in 1935 (during the Depression).  He had been a farmer and beekeeper.
According to family members he phased out the beekeeping and began experimenting with mushrooms. At first, the process was simple; add water to a flat and maintain temperature at about 60 degrees Fahrenheit. By 1940, this project took over half of their home basement and the old honey house.
The old honey house was a former one room school house, which had stood at the intersection of Defiance Trail (Rd 23 T) and Road U 20. Allemeier had moved this school house to his property in 1928. Soon he acquired the original gas station from the corner of Fifth St. and Fort Jennings Road (later German’s Shell and Flanagan’s Garage were located there). He moved this building to their property and converted it into a packing house. Two of the three rooms were heated with a potbelly stove.
About three years later the basement of their home was returned to normal, for then he had raised the roof of the chicken coop and doubled it’s size, thus creating the first mushroom house. The honey house was abandoned in 1947 when the second house was completed. The third house was added in the early 50’s.
Next he erected a cement block building to the front. This housed the large boiler that greatly improved the plant’s heating system. Soon afterward he designed and installed a refrigeration system so they could grow mushrooms year round.
The mushrooms grew in a dark windowless house that was approximately 70 X 30 and 16 feet high inside. Mushroom grew on beds that were 60 feet long, 5 feet wide, 8 inches deep and 8 feet high, with enough room between each bed to work, about 14 inches.
Horse manure is the ideal basis for mushroom compost because it has the least offensive  odor and will not kill spawn. This was hauled from the barns of racing horses at area fair grounds. It took 80-100 tons to supply a house. Piles of manure were forked through a turner and damped down by constantly spraying water. The manure was shaped into a rig and the turning process was repeated at least two more times. The manure was shaped into a rig and the turning process was repeated at least two more times. The Ph had to be 6.5 and was achieved by adding gypsum and lime. Alfalfa or red clover hay was added with ground corncobs to bring nitrogen up to 20 percent. Ideally a crew of about 20 workers filled a house in one day. The house was then tightly closed. Someone continually fired the boiler to reach peak heat of 120 degrees and held at that temperature for 24 hours. The compost was then tamped down in the beds and the spawn was planted.
Casing soil had to be gathered from field topsoil into metal boxes and stacked in a metal building that had a firebox beneath it.  Here the sail was sterilized at 130 degrees. When it cooled down, it was spread about one inch thick over the beds. Four to five weeks later the pin heads would appear and soon after, production was heavily underway. Several men and women were added to the work force for the first and second breaks and often there weren’t enough hours in a day to finish picking or packing. After the third break, the workload became more manageable. Usually mushrooms were shipped to Chicago by railway express, but were sometimes hauled by truck to Detroit, Toledo and Cleveland. Keeping them cool was a constant concern. During warm temperatures they were packed with dry ice.
It took about two pounds of mushrooms per square foot to meet expenses. A crop would effectively produce for about 15 weeks. After that, the contents of the beds were dumped into a conveyor, and carried onto a dump truck. Local people purchased this compost at %5.00 per load for their flowerbeds. When the house was emptied, the beds had to be repaired and cleaned.  Every inch of the bed boards and supportive uprights had to be scoured with wire brushes. After that fungicide was sprayed on every surface and soon the whole process started over again.
Jerome Klima (husband of Lorene) was one of the neighbor kids who started working there when he was only 11 years old. He helped build one of the mushroom houses. George Klima was the employee with the longest tenure. Other neighbor kids who worked there often were Ralph Rode and Jim Grothause.  All members of the Allemeier family helped in the operations. The kids often had box folding contests when they got bored.  During the really busy season, students were permitted to get out of school at Ft. Jennings to help pick.
Leo Allemeier married Catherine Metzger and they had six children: Hilary, Edna, Marie, Monica, Lorene and Margaret. Hilary lost his life in 1953 in the Korean War. This took the wind out of the sails for his father. He carried on the business until 1963. At that time large quantities of mushrooms were being imported and freight charges had become so high, it was not longer profitable to continue plant operations.
Leo died in 1990 at the age of 92, and Catherine died in 1997 at the age of 99.  Lorene and Margaret are surviving members of the family.
Annette and Lance Brown, and their two children live in the Allemeier home, where they operate their business, Mushroom Graphics. Annette is the daughter of Lorene and Jerome Klima.
My thanks to Lorene Klima and Monica German for providing me with the information for this story.

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