USA > Ohio > Montgomery County > Memoirs of the Miami valley > Part 43
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A Valley of Memories. "Back to scenes of beauty" leads the road from Bellefontaine to Zanesfield. Though he trudged afoot, the traveler would be repaid for the journey merely by the changing prospect of the hills, rising higher and higher, cleft by ravines with threadlike streams trickling down their jagged, boulder-strewn channels; and lo, at the end, the last and loveliest of all views to fill the eye with wonder and delight, and the heart with measureless rest. As if to withhold the sight as long as possible and thereby enhance the thrill, the road winds like a corkscrew in its descent be- tween the hills, then opens, like the gate of a lost Eden, upon a scene of idyllic beauty, the Morning Land of Logan. As far as the eye may sweep, from the mild-eyed spotted cattle in the field beside the roadway to the farthest tree-clad hill and green slope dotted with placid sheep; across level bottom lands and rolling uplands laid off in patterned grain fields and gardens; up roadways thread- ing the opposite steeps into some farther land of dreams beyond the forests of maple, beech and walnut; tinted with the delicate greens of spring ; flaming with autumn's crimson and yellow ; in summer's full leaf or with the bare boughs of November-beauty to tempt the artist's brush is never absent from the paradise of Mad river valley. Poets may rave about it, and novelists weave romances, but there is no need, for here, nestling in the cradle of the hills, is Zanes- field, whose other name is Romance, born of Reality.
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THE STORY OF LOGAN COUNTY
Its beginnings have already been told in the story of Isaac Zane and his family, up to the date of its formal platting by his heirs, in 1819, when the Town of Zane became "Zanesfield." The changes of a century have passed over the little village, and there is now but one house in it of which any part was built prior to 1820, although a number are survivals of ninety years, and nearly every decade since is represented in the neatly kept streets and the houses thereon.
Descending the hill, at the left of which the Oliver Fawcett home looks southward across the basin toward Wapatomica, one enters the level of the village. Here, at the right, stands the neat schoolhouse, built in 1875 and remodeled in 1909. It was preceded by two others within the village limits, both built on Sandusky avenue. The first sufficed for the period from 1831 to 1854, when it was torn down to make place for a larger structure. That went its way when the smart new school of 1875 was erected, William Reames opening a blacksmithy in the old temple of learning. It was a very good smithy, and survived until 1913, when the site was needed for the new library.
Next to the schoolhouse of today stands the original chapel of the Zanesfield Presbyterians, a severely simple frame building which has weathered the storms of time since the fifties. A cottage or two, with the lawn clipped quite to the edge of the road, come next, and on the Sandusky avenue corner, at the left, stands an an- cient brick, once an office, but now the headquarters of the "West Jefferson cream depot," and beyond it, set back from the street behind a group of tall old spruces, is the old Brown residence, known as "the Omar Brown house," but now belonging to Ellsworth B. Roberts, who has removed to Raymond, Ohio. The old house is vacant, but is worthy of renovation and occupation, as are several more noticeable in the same locality.
Coming back to the corner of Sandusky and the Bellefontaine road one finds the postoffice occupying the corner room of the old hotel built by Edward Kenton, and later kept by Amos Thompson, Davis, Porter, Pope, Horn, and others of the famous old landlords of long ago. The rest of the building is practically vacant, but "apartments" are "to let" within it. South of this building on "lot 24," is the house where, prior to 1830, Job Garwood kept tavern. It was then a one-story affair of hewn logs. Jacob Gross bought Mr. Garwood out in 1832, and was himself bought out in 1833 by Conrad Marshall and Jeremiah Fisher, who kept the tavern until 1840, in the meantime building a two-story extension and raising the original house to two stories, thus making a good and comfortable hostelry. It was here, in 1839, that Mr. Marshall en- tertained Henry Clay, for one night only, but the glory of that one night's presence of the great man has never entirely departed from the house, which is pointed out to visitors, and is still in astonish- ingly good preservation. John Sloan and William Vaughn rented the tavern in 1840, but Marshall returned in 1843, and remained in control until 1848, being succeeded then by Jacob Wonders and William Keys, after which the place became a private residence.
South of it is the large frame store building put up in 1866 by
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Charles Folsom, in which the "general store" business of O. K. Reames is now conducted, and where, twenty-five years ago, the Plummer brothers, John, Dan and Jim, kept a similar store, with hardware in addition. Oren Outland also once occupied this store. In the second story the Odd Fellows maintain their lodge. In the Reames store was installed the first telephone in Zanesfield.
Across the street is a little building the doors of which stand always open, watchful of the village safety from the fire fiend. In it, waiting, waiting, may be seen the high buggy-wheeled "hook and ladder wagon," the tiny hose cart, and the quaint old hand fire-en- gine which once, in the days of long ago, did duty as the fire equip- ment of Bellefontaine. Fire cisterns are filled and ready. Above, in a toy belfry, hangs a diminutive bell. One smiles, but hopes devoutly that it may never ring an alarm, nor the old "department" ever be used for anything more serious than a village celebration. For, by this time, we, who entered it so casually an hour ago, already love it so that we would not see a splinter from the cradle of Logan county sacrificed.
Past the "Fire Station" the Town Hall looms up neat in white paint, and has been, during the days of the world war, the scene of tireless Red Cross activity, and other village interests. One looks back to the west side of the street again, to see a cottage which was once the home of the Sloans, where the boyhood of an ambitious little lad was passed amid narrow circumstances. A circulating library had its shelf of books set up in one of the village stores, presided over by Ira Brown, a good man, but of the old school. Little Earl one day asked for a book. The librarian looked sternly over his spectacle tops and scowling replied:
"We don't give out books to little boys."
Burning with childish indignation, the boy went home empty- handed and confided to his mother a vow to "be rich enough, some day, to make a place where no one could say 'no' to a boy who asked for a book."
So, there is a swelling of the heart when one turns to face the beautiful Sloan Library, which is the realization of that boy's reso- lution. The building is of yellow pressed brick and Bedford stone, and above the Greek portal is a fine bronze medallion of the bene- factor, set in an arabesque of stucco, the models for both being made by Warren Cushman, the artist who has put Mad River valley on canvas and shown it to the world. Within, the library is all that a library of its size should be, its reading rooms, committee rooms, and stack room (already boasting two thousand volumes), light, airy, commodious, filling the main floor ; while in the basement the ban- quet hall, accommodating a hundred guests, and a perfectly equipped kitchen complete a simple but sufficient social center. A loan col- lection of great value is constituted by the eighteen or twenty paint- ings by Warren Cushman, which hang upon the walls of the library. The librarian is Mrs. Eva Grubbs Lovelace, born in the village, a daughter of Mrs. Mary Grubbs, who, at the age of seventy-two, is probably the oldest native of the village proper at present living there. Mrs. Grubbs was a Vaughn and her mother was a Sloan. In her childhood, she recalls, it was her greatest treat to be per-
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THE STORY OF LOGAN COUNTY
mitted to go across the valley to the cabin of an Indian family, and help in the Saturday afternoon toilet of the pappooses.
John Collins, aged seventy-six, relates to us, as we chat in the Reames store, the day he started to school, seventy-one years ago, in the old log schoolhouse north of the village. He is the only man still living in Zanesfield who went to that old school. Some of the pupils of the day were Thomas Robb, and Dan Fisher, Omar Brown and his sister Ellen, John Knight, Ed Griffin, Charlie Folsom, and the Moore children. Joseph Robb was the teacher. The benches whereon the pupils sat were made of puncheons, with the bark still clinging, the urchins' homespuns sometimes clinging also. The blackboard on which they learned to write was a hewn slab, painted. The same old school was, either before or afterward, the home of "old man Easton," and it was there that William Easton was born.
About three miles north of Zanesfield is the farm where Simon Kenton settled early in the nineteenth century, and where he lived until his death, being buried, at his specific request, on his own farm, the grave being marked by a natural boulder, and surrounded by a stout paling of hewn hardwood pickets. It remains an un- answered question upon what grounds the city of Urbana claimed the honor of his dust in later years. To the Knight farm, above the Kenton place, Edward H. Knight, celebrated scholar and scien- tist, and at the time United States commissioner of patents, brought the first wheat cutting machine ever used west of the Alleghanies. The machine, known as the "Walter A. Wood" reaper, was a new invention, for which the patent had just been secured. Also at the northern edge of the valley is the well-known spring on the farm of George A. Henry, where, as a boy Mr. Henry was wont to amuse himself by dropping a cork into the center of the pool, to see which way the water ran that day-north, toward Rush creek and the Scioto, or south toward Mad river and the Miami! The spring was quite impartial.
Come back to Zanesfield. Around the corner on the left after leaving the library, the home of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Polk stands at the foot of Columbus street, on the same spot where Grandmother Dickinson prepared, in her cabin, a great feast for the entertainment of Governor Meigs and his staff, in 1812. However, while the gov- ernor made his round of inspection of the block house defenses, a delegation of uninvited Wyandots quite informally ate up the choicest viands, and the distinguished guests sat down to the leav- ings. Such was the Wyandot way.
Turning townward again, the brick building erected in 1838, or earlier, by the Marmon brothers, stands on the left-hand corner, bravely holding its own after eighty years' service. It is now unoccupied except for storage, but it once housed a prosperous trad- ing store, and at one time was a tavern. On the east side of the street the corner is now occupied by "the brick," built about 1881, by Omar Brown, and used by him as a store. The building is still fresh looking, and is the headquarters of the C. E. Wooley general merchandise company. On this corner, in 1833, stood a two-story frame store, built by Robert Marmon, who enclosed in the structure a building already standing on the spot. This store was soon after-
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ward converted into a tavern which was kept successively by Abra- ham McNeill, Jonathan Hopkins (1840), Daniel Mason, I. G. Wil- liams, John Clingerman, William Keys, Wilson S. Sloan, Thomas Wade, James Cole, Horatio Clingerman and James G. Hamilton, who took possession about the end of 1871, and under whose owner- ship the building was totally destroyed by fire November, 1872. Mr. Hamilton was the father of John M. and Ernest Hamilton of Belle- fontaine. The tavern was built in "L" shape, and at the west end of the lot stood a livery stable belonging to the establishment. To the rear and south of the stable, near "Brad" Smith's home, stood the old Isaac Zane block house.
A flag pole erected at the intersection of Sandusky and Colum- bus streets bears very proudly, this autumn of 1918, a flag of white bordered with red, and barred four times with blue, significant of Zanesfield's loyalty in the Fourth Liberty Loan. But the flag pole is forgotten in a moment when at the end of the street the Zane- Kenton memorial arrests the eye. It is a giant granite boulder brought hither from an adjacent hillside and set up, on a pedestal of native stone, at the parting of the ways. It bears two bronze tablets, one inscribed to Isaac Zane, founder of the old village, while the other is dedicated to the memory of Simon Kenton. Dr. Sloan as- sisted in this work and the remainder of the cost was borne by the villagers and the heirs of Zane and Kenton. It is intended at some future day to surmount the boulder with a bronze figure of an In- dian representing Chief Tarhe, the father of Myeerah Zane-a project which should enlist the help of every citizen of Logan coun- ty whose ancestors once called Zanesfield home. This unique mon- ument figured in the great "homecoming" of a few years ago, when, inspired by the artist, Warren Cushman, and Dr. Earl Sloan, the villagers and young men and maidens of the valley rendered a beautiful pageant portraying the story of "Isaac Zane among the Wyandots." The dramatization was the work of O. K. Reames, and was a conception of artistic merit, while its execution, under the direction of Mr. Cushman, who portrayed Chief Tarhe, was faithful and enthusiastic. The pageant was hoped to be, and deserves to become an event of periodic repetition, which shall keep alive the beautiful story of the past, and from time to time draw Logan county home "to find the hollows where those flowers grew" in the playground of its youth.
When, in 1898, the Toledo & Ohio Central railway broke through the stillness of the valley, it did more than give its pas- sengers a glimpse of paradise. It opened the way from this garden spot of the county to outer markets, and it carries away annually large shipments of grain, hay, livestock and lumber-which is still a very important export from this point, owing to the black walnut timber which is still plentiful in the woods. As high as three hun- dred carloads of logs have been shipped in one year, cargoes during the war with Germany being consigned to the government. The elevator is the property of the Yoder company, of West Liberty. Milk, eggs and poultry and other farm produce is transported to market by motor truck service, tons upon tons going to the can- nery at DeGraff.
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THE STORY OF LOGAN COUNTY
The "first gristmill" in this valley which was once a valley of mills, was built by William McColloch, and followed by others at very early dates, accompanied by the equally necessary sawmills. At least one was built before the War of 1812, for it was abandoned before 1820. It stood south of Zanesfield, on the West Liberty road. In 1830 Joshua Folsom built a sawmill about one mile north of the village. It was operated by means of a "flutter wheel," and the dam was built of logs, which the Mad river freshets frequently washed out, necessitating many repairs. But it did good service until 1850, when Charles Folsom, the son, built a new mill farther down the stream and utilized the water from the mill race to op- erate a flouring mill, while he installed a steam engine for the saw- mill, abandoning the latter after a time, however, to devote his time to flour milling. Another well-remembered gristmill of early times was that built by John Pym in 1836. At first operated by water power, it was after many years converted into a steam mill, and much enlarged. I. J. Baldwin purchased the mill from Pym, and his name clung to the business ever after, although it passed from his ownership at last, to Rutan & Riddle, G. P. Stevenson, and J. Crawford Smith, a brother to "Brad" Smith, and both sons of Benjamin Smith. J. N. Dickinson became the owner of the old Folsom Mill. The Marmon sawmill stood near their land.
Benjamin Smith, Samuel Lippincott, Benajah Williams, Dr. James Crew, Jonathan Thomas, William Easton, Daniel Antrim, Oren Outland and Absalom Brown were among the early home builders in Zanesfield. Lanson Curtis, who was the first merchant after Robitaille, and who also brought into the county the first wheeled vehicle, was the first postmaster. Curtis was never a popular man, but is remembered gratefully for the real benefits which he conferred on the village. Zane McColloch followed him as the village merchant, and after him the Marmon brothers came into prominence in this capacity. Foos, Taylor, Kenton, Cleveland, McBeth, Smith, Means, Brown, Keys and Sands were successors as the years went by, and later store keepers were Omar Brown, Oren Outland, the Plummer brothers, and, today, the Wooley com- pany and O. K. Reames.
The first tannery in Zanesfield was opened by Benjamin Smith, son of Christopher, who settled in the village immediately follow- ing his marriage to Cynthanetta Garwood. Downs & Marmon suc- ceeded him in the business, and John Monroe afterward occupied the field until time and change swept this industry elsewhere.
Of resident physicians in Zanesfield, Dr. James Crew was the first, followed by Dr. Joshua Robb; and it may be said here, in addi- tion to other mention, that from this valley came Dr. Benjamin Stanton Brown, the son of Aaron and Anna Stanton Brown, who were from North Carolina, and settled, near Marmon's Bottom, in 1818.
The first church to be established in the valley of the upper Mad river was the congregation of Quakers, who built the old Goshen chapel on the Middleburg road about one mile east of Zanesfield. It followed the organization of the Middleburg Society very shortly, and the chapel dates well previous to 1810. The con-
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troversy excited by the spread of the Hicksite doctrines caused a split in this congregation of good people which was only settled by the Hicksites retiring a half mile west on the same road, where they built, in 1828, a chapel which is still in occasional use, though neither body possesses the same strength as of old. The second religious body to organize was the Baptist, who built, in 1814, a church near Tharp's Run, by which designation the congregation was always known. It was a congregation inspired with great zeal, and full of missionary spirit. No less than four churches were dis- missed from it to other points in the growing new country, the last being the congregation established in the village of Zanesfield. The old Tharp's Run church was built of hewn logs in 1819, but in 1845 this was replaced by a brick chapel thirty by forty feet in dimen- sions, and there the congregation continued to meet and to hold its annual reunions for nearly fifty years longer. A thousand pleas- ant and tender memories rise at the mention of "Old Tharp's Run church," where young George McColloch's ministry began, the beneficent sanctity of whose life still keeps his memory sacred. The chapel itself was razed to permit the passage of the railroad through the valley.
The Methodists were the third pioneer religious body, but built no church for some time, holding their classes in homes and in the school building. This became a point of conscientious objec- tion at last, and the difficulty was settled by Lanson Curtis, who built a little brick chapel at his own expense, and gave free use of it to the Methodists, who were by that time (1836) a regularly or- ganized congregation. It is still the strongest denomination in the locality, and members are ministered to at their pretty church by Rev. E. A. Boots.
The Presbyterian church was the last to be organized in Zanes- field. Exact dates are not to be had, but the family of John Robb (an uncle of James Robb) and L. P. Burton and his wife and her sister, all of the "'30s," are the first Presbyterians known to have come to this part of Logan county. They were joined not long after their arrival by Sylvester Robb and William Cook and their families, and by Mrs. James Kenton. The first sermons were de- livered by Revs. J. H. Gilman and W. M. Galbreath, between the years 1842 and 1845; in the little brick meeting house of the Meth- odists, their own chapel not being built until 1853. Dr. Joshua S. Robb was the chairman of the building committee, and William Cook and Joshua Scott put up the building. A glance at the fol- lowing list of "ruling elders" of the congregation reveals not only the passing generations of the church, but of Zanesfield itself. They were, from 1851 to 1880, Joshua Robb, Luther Smith, Justus Rutan, E. T. Davis, Samuel Marquis, George D. Adams, Charles Chapman, J. K. Abraham, Samuel Jameson, Thomas Marquis, William S. Irwin, Charles Rockwell, R. B. Porter, J. E. Smith, and G. P. Stev- enson. The congregation has since then dwindled with time and removals, until a few years ago, when Dr. Earl S. Sloan, of Boston (originator of the world-famed "Sloan's Liniment, Good for Man and Beast") born in Zanesfield and reared in the Presbyterian faith by his mother, Susan Sloan, visited the village and found the
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THE STORY OF LOGAN COUNTY
staunch old chapel in sad need of repairs. He at once provided for its renovation, in honor of that mother of his-to whom a bronze memorial tablet now hangs upon the east wall of the room -and left a fund to provide ministerial service as often as obtain- able. Rev. Charles Marston, of Huntsville, now gives a part of his time to the Zanesfield Presbyterians. At Dr. Sloan's direction, three mural panels were executed by Warren Cushman, represent- ing Love, Hope and Charity, and these hang on the front wall of the chapel, being done on canvases and removable if the church is ever rebuilt.
The Wyandot Indians, of whom Tarhe was chief, had located their village about the cluster of fine springs in the bottoms. As settlement by the whites progressed and wells were sunk, for con- venience, in everybody's dooryard, these springs became neglected, and were gradually forming a marsh in the vicinity, where the land was owned, up to twenty years ago, by "Brad" Smith. After the extension of the road to the south through this little marsh and toward the depot, about twenty years ago, a cantaloupe garden was started in the vicinity by Mr. Cushman, and about the same time B. G. Cushman's attention was attracted to the springs, sit- uated in the fork of the two roads. Mr. Smith ascertained that the springs were wells of water pure and free from mineral taint, and Mr. Cushman then bought the land and set about reclaiming the springs for the purpose of establishing a trout hatchery. A thor- ough scientific study of fishery has enabled him to develop, since 1903, a complete system of trout hatcheries and fishing pools which cover some acres of ground, and have converted the unsightly marsh into a pretty park with grassy levees separating the pools, the water from which passes freely through hidden conduits from one to an- other, and is maintained at the purity which is absolutely impera- tive for trout culture. Along the levees one hundred young birches were planted a year ago, giving promise of future beauty to the place, while a well-grown row of the same graceful trees extends along the middle levee already. The pools are planted with water cress, and with mosses brought from Castalia, Ohio, where is the only other trout fishery of this character in the state.
No prettier tail-piece to the village could be devised than this fishing park-for Zanesfield seems a story-book, the last chapter ending as all romances should, "And they were happy for ever after." The turmoil of its life is past, but life is left and it is good. It is one of those stories that should and will be read and re-read by succeeding generations, like Grimm's Tales, or "Alice in Wonder- land"-a perpetual new edition with the Zane-Kenton memorial stamped in gilt on the cover, the Sloan Library for its frontispiece, and thumb-nail sketches of its quaint landmarks littering the favorite pages.
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THE STORY OF SHELBY COUNTY
TO O DIFFERENTIATE the history of any two contiguous political divisions of territory seems at first glance to be a somewhat difficult proposition. Possessed by the same tribes of aborigines, contended for by the same invaders, watered and drained by the same great stream, each a pathway for the passage of hostile armies, and sharing common difficulties in white settlement, a casual view presents but little difference. Particularly in the ter- ritory comprising the county of Shelby, covering as it does por- tions of what had been Champaign, Miami and Logan counties, the story of these three might appear to be the story of Shelby. How- ever, very clear distinctions come to light, upon study, which give to this territory an individuality fully as separate as those whose acreage helped to constitute it.
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