Interview: Stein Family

PAULINE AND ELMER STEIN

Elmer Stein, his brothers Harry and John, and his sister Estella Olvis and their families all moved to Belmont in the very early 1900s.  Elmer and his family first moved into the Denlinger house on Shakertown Pike, now Watervliet Ave., in 1902.  In 1904, they bought a house on what is now Smithville Rd. south of Watervliet.  He worked for 17 years at the Barney & Smith Car Works.  Afterwards he built several homes in Belmont.  Elmer and his wife Nora, along with his brothers and sisters and their families, were charter members in the formation of the Belmont E.U.B. Church.  He was a member of the School Board for 20 years and it’s President for several years.  He was also Captain on the first volunteer fire department.

Pauline remembers there was no fire department when she was small.  Some of the men formed a volunteer department.  When there was a fire, they would grab their buckets and run to the fire.  When they got a fire engine, they made her dad Captain, and she still remembers him standing on the back of the fire engine ringing the bell.  They lived across the street from the Belmont Church, and when there was a fire, her dad would run over and ring the church bell.