Tight-knit Archbold embraces grassroots conservatism

Sept. 23--Fourth in a five-part series

ARCHBOLD, Ohio -- This community of roughly 4,300, situated an hour west of Toledo, is best understood through its lawns.

Bright, impeccably trimmed grass fills the space between amply-spaced houses on quiet streets.

"In the neighborhood that I live in, everybody sort of competes to cut their grass," said Matt Gilroy, 38, the executive director of the Fulton County Economic Development Corporation, who resides in Woodland Oaks, on the south side of town. "You don't want to be the one with the tallest grass on your lawn. It's not a situation where the government has to be involved in that. People just sort of take care of their own."

Tales of a rural America in decline are easy to come by. Small towns, as the story goes, have been hollowed out by industrial decay, the ravages of opioids, and young people leaving for the big city.

Archbold, whose residents voted nearly 3-1 for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election, stands in stark contrast to that narrative, with 9,300 jobs packed into five square miles, a median income of $55,203 -- Ohio's median household income according to the most recent U.S. Census figures is $50,674 -- and five car dealerships. Many of the qualities that have given rise to the community's prosperity -- the sense of mutual responsibility, the conservative ethos of self-sufficiency, the spirit of competition and industry -- are bound up in those vibrant green lawns.

Blade Series: Views from small-town Ohio

Woodworking history

Northwest Ohio was the last corner of the state European settlers moved into, starting with the heavily forested southeast corner of Fulton County near Archbold, where they established a woodworking industry.

That origin story is retold by residents like Jim Wyse, 57, Archbold's mayor from 2004 to 2016, whose great-great-great-grandfather was among the first settlers to arrive in the 1830s.

"The way I view history, I think it brings a real sense of community pride," Mr. Wyse said. "With all the trees and all the things they had to overcome to settle this area and make the land fertile, a lot of people worked hard. Today, we have our farms, we have our factories, and we have a good work ethic."

But it would be misleading to attribute the success of Sauder Woodworking, a global company based in Archbold that produces ready-to-assemble furniture for retailers like Ikea, Walmart, and Target, to work ethic alone. Community plays a role, too.

Sauder Woodworking, which employs more than 2,500 people in Archbold and tops $500 million in annual sales, is an anomaly. According to Kevin Sauder, its president and CEO, about 80 percent of the company's furniture is manufactured domestically, the rest in China. Almost all other American furniture companies, he said, are "100 percent imports."

"A lot of guys who work here grew up on farms and learned to fix tractors as kids," he said as he walked briskly through the company's Brush Creek plant during a recent summer day.

Workers manned kitchen furniture assembly lines, robotic arms checked the depth and spacing of holes to ensure they meet Ikea's specifications, and a machine sucked up sawdust and channeled it through pipes to Sauder's electric plant, where it is burned to generate a third of the company's electricity.

The average tenure of a Sauder Woodworking employee is around 15 years, and some families have two or three generations working at the company. Mr. Sauder himself is part of the third generation of family leadership. His grandfather, Erie, whose name echoes around town as part of local folklore, started the business in 1934 in a barn behind his Archbold home.

Mr. Sauder, 58, with rimless rectangular glasses and a neatly trimmed white mustache, lives in town. His kids attended Archbold Public Schools. He's the president of the Rotary Club. He leads four-part hymns at Zion Mennonite Church. His company provides free mental health counseling to all employees and their families. That all matters to him.

"I literally sit here every day, when I'm in my office at 2:30, and watch the cars go by, and that's all the first shift on Sauder Street going home," he said. "I know many of the people in those cars have a car loan that's got an income that they earned here pledged to it. And so it's important that we make the right decisions, that we don't think of people as cogs in a wheel. They live here, and they work here, and they're our friends."

Main Street

Big companies like Sauder have been kept in town through a combination of tax abatements, discounts on workers' compensation, and reduced health insurance rates, according to Amy Krueger, 48, the executive director of the Archbold Area Chamber of Commerce.

But tiny retailers and main street storefronts define the town, too, even as retail reels in Archbold, as it has everywhere the Internet reaches. Some shops, though, are hanging on.

Lauber's Clothing & Formal Wear, located downtown, is one of those. Its gregarious owner, Tim Smith, 73, is a fourth-generation Archbold resident. His great-grandfather started the shop in 1888. He began working there at age 12 and doesn't plan to quit. He can guess a customer's height, weight, and tailoring measurements at a glance. His grandson, who is in third grade, can already ring the register and run the credit card machine.

Lauber's expanded to five stores around 30 years ago, before scaling back down to one. To keep the business going, they've started screen-printing, embroidery, and lettering. They rent out a lot of tuxedos for weddings. They bought an athletics store five years ago and started selling sports apparel.

"I have survived because I want to survive," Mr. Smith said.

He was thrilled when Mr. Trump was elected in 2016, calling it "the greatest day of my life." Mr. Trump is a businessman, and business is all Mr. Smith has been about for 61 years.

Christian community

In 2014, the sanctuary of St. Martin's Lutheran Church underwent a makeover, two years before the 150th anniversary of both the church and the village. A portable altar and organ were installed, along with an elaborate electrical and audio system. When the black-bearded pastor, Paul Reichert, 54, isn't preaching, the space doubles as a stage for groups like Archbold's junior choral society.

"Things have changed," Mr. Reichert said. "We wanted to be able to offer the space to the community."

There are 16 churches or Christian institutions in Archbold proper, and many more near its borders. Mennonites and Lutherans predominate. About four-fifths of Archbold residents belong to a congregation.

Though there are exceptions, people in Archbold often aren't forthcoming about politics. Here, faith provides a basis for morality, binds the community together, and plays a major role in providing social services for the vulnerable. When political questions arise, religion provides answers.

"My faith is the most important thing in my life, so I don't take a perspective of, 'Oh, I'm conservative,' or 'Oh, I'm liberal,' necessarily," said Gavin Morton, 22. "It's more along the lines of, 'What is in alignment with what I believe in and what the Bible says?' "

When people in Archbold are in need, it's the churches that often step in. At Archbold Evangelical Church, which has the largest congregation in town at 600 members, "shepherds" guide the homeless toward self-sufficiency, providing financial advice, helping with job interview preparation, providing transportation, and assisting with legal fees.

With churches dedicated to providing social services, the local government tends to focus on attracting businesses and maintaining infrastructure, which it does well; Archbold's monthly residential water rate was about $30 in 2016, among the lowest in Ohio, according to the state Environmental Protection Agency.

National politics are of lesser concern, and when deciding how to cast their vote, many Archbold residents turn to the Bible. Mr. Trump was seen by some people in town as the "lesser of two evils" because of his opposition to abortion rights, said Garrett Grime, 20, who worked at Ickey's, the town's beloved bar. Though some residents, like Tim Smith, are vocal supporters of Mr. Trump, many of the Archbold residents who voted for him did so reluctantly.

"This is as rock-ribbed Republican a town as you'll find, there's no doubt about it, but you weren't hearing too much beating of the tom-toms over Trump," said James "Bummer" Dominique, 70, the longtime owner of Ickey's.

You also won't hear calls of "Fake News" or attacks on the press -- at least toward the local newspaper. Ross Taylor, who since 1978 has run the community's weekly newspaper, the Archbold Buckeye, said residents have remained mostly supportive of the more than 110-year-old publication, even when publishing editorials they disagree with.

"I think people here still value [the newspaper]," he said. "We're non-denominational -- we're not Republican, Democrat, or Communist. We just try to be straight up and honest and truthful as it's possible to be. And we've always been that way.

"For being so conservative, the people here are very forward thinking and trusting," Mr. Taylor said.

The publication has a long family history. It was founded by Mr. Taylor's grandfather, William O. Taylor, and since the mid-1930s has stood at 207 North Defiance St. The paper was passed to Mr. Taylor's parents in 1955 and then to him in 1977.

Although the paper has faced some challenges throughout the past several years, Mr. Taylor said one constant is the community has maintained its support of the news publication. Likewise, he said he could never imagine himself leaving Archbold or closing up shop.

"We have lost subscribers, but we haven't lost readership because people haven't lost interest," he said. "They still pay attention to the newspaper, and they want it."

Erosion, conservation

There's one area where Archbold voters defy conservative orthodoxy: If a tax hike is proposed to fund schools or parks, voters usually pass it. The town has five parks and a strong public schools system, the product of residents' devotion to their children.

On prom night in Archbold every spring, a crowd of up to 1,000 gathers to cheer as couples promenade through the town's center. At churches, kids participate in youth groups, sing in choirs, and go on mission trips. The musicals students put on and the sports they play are the town's main forms of entertainment. It may be a small town, but for children, the pervading sense of safety makes the world feel expansive.

The way people vote reflects this ethos.

"Archbold certainly is conservative," said Mr. Reichert, the pastor at St. Martin's. "The community is not transient, so they're interested in maintaining what's here, not just for them, but for folks who come in. I think it's an older sense of conservative, meaning, conserve."

But while Archbold is rooted in tradition, a lot of things are changing, too: the decline in retail, for instance, or the rising Hispanic population in a town where just under 90 percent of people are white, according to state data.

Some of the more drastic change has been felt by farmers on the town's periphery. Derald Seiler, 76, who grows corn, soybeans, and wheat on 120 acres in German Township, just northwest of Archbold, isn't fazed by a plunge in crop prices caused by Mr. Trump's trade wars. What he's more concerned about is the gradual erosion of his community.

"You don't have the get-togethers in the community like you used to. Everybody's more independent," he said, leaning on the wooden railing of his front stoop as chimes clinked in the wind. "You're either big or you're out. Now, everybody farms 500, 1,000, 1,500 acres. At one time a 120-acre farm was a pretty good size."

Agriculture is still robust in Archbold. Farmers sell their products to Gerald Grain, which ships corn and beans on rail lines to feed mills and processing plants on the East Coast. The tariffs aren't as big a change as the steady consolidation, over decades, and the resulting shift felt by farmers like Mr. Seiler as neighbors grow farther apart.

Back in town, the strong church presence, renowned schools, and breadth of employment opportunities would figure to keep most families intact across generations. But that's not always the case. Mr. Morton, who is working downtown at CIG Financial this summer, said he isn't sure what lies ahead for him.

"The chance to see something different is kind of exciting," he said. "But when I'm starting a family, I think the things I've appreciated about Archbold would be great to have my children experience as well."

That's a path many Archbold residents take, and it's one officials like Mr. Gilroy, from the Fulton County Economic Development Corp., are hoping to promote. Mr. Gilroy has started the "Boomerang Project," compiling databases of former residents and notifying them of job opportunities in town, in an effort to bring back some of the 58 percent of Archbold students in the last four graduating classes who have left town for college.

Even though residents are constantly working to adapt, there are some things about Archbold that seem ingrained in the soil and the lawns, the sidewalks and factory floors. Mr. Seiler, the farmer, feels as close to the land as he did when he started tilling it over 70 years ago.

"This is where I grew up," he said. "You're close to nature. You're close to God. You gotta rely on him to supply. He's the one that gives you your yield. We've always had enough to eat and a place to live."

Sometimes, in this corner of Fulton County, there's a sense that the spirits of the Wyses and the Sauders will never fade and Archbold will remain close-knit and prosperous forever.

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