You will enjoy the record of the stories of Carolene Tuller who grew up on Ashbaugh Road, where most of Muirfield Village now is located. Indians, buffalo, wild turkeys, one-room schoolhouses, a lost church but its cemetery left behind, and ice cream socials. They are stories of hard life in simpler times.
“THEM WAS THE DAYS…”
by Carolene Tuller
The following delightful reminiscences were collected and written about by Carolene (Mrs. Leonard) Tuller about 1960.
A United Bretheren Church was built in the north part of Washington Township, Franklin County, near the Delaware line about 1846.
At first, logs were hewed, with the intention of erecting a log house, but this plan was changed and the logs sold. A frame building was then put up. William Warner was an active member of the church and in erecting the building. Other members were: Cyrus Ashbaugh and wife, Henry Karrher and wife.
A Sabbath School is sustained at the church building during all the seasons except the Winter.
Note: the above was taken from the Franklin-Pickaway History by Samuel Lutz of Pickaway County, Saltcreek Township.
The Mt. Zion church was erected south of the Mt. Zion Cemetery, with a drive-way between the church and the cemetery. The church was a frame building and of good size. In 1915 the church was razed and the stones in the foundations were hauled by Mr. Jerry Myers and Sons to be used in the foundation, in building the new north part of Leonard Tuller’s house on Brand Road.
Mr. Curtis Artz, Sr., of 3927 Eastline Drive, Jackson, Mississippi, tells us, that he was born in the old log house on the late Wm. Leppert farm on Avery Road, July 14, 1877. They moved to his grandfather’s on Ashbaugh, when he was a very small child.
When he was five years old, his parents moved to the corner of Glick-Avery Rds. where he lived 65 years. He then, sold the farm, built a new home on Arden Road, Columbus, Ohio. Today, he is retired and lives in the Sunny South. His wife, Bertha, passed away February 1959. His son (the only child) is a surgeon in Jackson, Mississippi.
Mr. Artz tells us, that his grandparents, Mr. And Mrs. Isaac Artz, lived on the hill just north of Price Lane. This is the Artz homestead. Isaac Artz, died December 1, 1873. In 1874, his wife died, leaving the three younger children at home, unmarried. The following year, the father of Curtis, Sr., Gideon (who was between 20-21), his brother, Elisha (two years his senior), and the sister, Malissa (two years older than Elisha) were married (on October 1, 1875), at the same time and using the same ceremony. Mr. And Mrs. Isaac Artz are buried in Mt. Zion Cemetery near the north fence.
Mr. Artz remembers attending the Mt. Zion Sunday School when a small boy; also, a strawberry social that was held at the church.
Rachel Leasure was her first teacher recalls Susan Freshwater Brown and boarded with them, the Cyrus Freshwater family. She remembers the first Glick School was made of stone, had wooden benches with no backs. A few years after she was born they moved to the stone house just south of the Flowers farm and Deer Run on Dublin-Bellpoint Road. Later, the family moved on Ashbaugh Road, first house south of Mr. And Mrs. Geo. Artz. Her father moved the house across the road, the cellar can be seen today.
Mrs. Brown recalls attending an ice cream and strawberry social at the Mt. Zion Church about 1887. The cream was made in buckets, covered with pot-lids and folded towels. She can relate many stories as to the way of life on this road seventy few years ago. They shared with others from their own larder, were loyal, never weighing a kindness. They lived like kith and kin. Them wuz the days, when babysitters were called, “Mother”.
Fifty years ago, many called the Glick School the Reibel School and Ashbaugh Road the Mt. Zion Road or the Blackberry Road. We find the Ashbaugh Road was named for a pioneer farmer by the name of Mr. Enoch Ashbaugh, who lived, second house south of the Price Lane, and was one of the pioneer settlers on Ashbaugh Road. He was an active member at Mr. Zion Church, died August 11, 1865, age 54 years and was buried in Mt. Zion Cemetery. Today, few call the road “Buzzard’s Glory”.
Mr. And Mrs. Ed Welty lived in the third house on Price Lane. He was employed by Attorney John Todd (ex-senator of Ohio), owner of the farm. He helped raze the house that stood just south of the church in the late twenties.
In 1928, the Weltys moved to Jerome where he has been connected with the H.B. Seely Store for 32 years. Mr. And Mrs. Seely sell everything you might need “from the cradle to the grave”. It IS the meetin’ place of the world.
Mrs. Susie Brown, Dublin, tells us that her grandfather, David Freshwater, came from Maryland to Ohio and married Mary Ashbaugh. He owned land from the river to the Ashbaugh Road, also, the Turney Glick farm and lived in the Glick house. One day, Indians brought two bushels of cranberries and asked Mr. Freshwater to trade them for corn. He gave them the corn, but never having seen this variety of berry, did not use them. History tells us, “there was a good 2000-acre marsh full of the berries in Crawford Co”. Later, “they sold for 25 cents a bu”. There was a log house back in the field on her grandfather’s farm just south of the Glick School where she was born, 1877. The children living in Delaware Co. on Ashbaugh Road attended the Glick Scioto School and the ones living in Franklin County attended the White School.
A few of the Glick School No. 7 teachers were: Geo. Ruhlen, Gursen Herriott, Harry Leasure, Mattie Ainsworth Addie Glick Maddox, Flora Trimby Norris, Lucy Frederick Dulin, Edith Crawford Conroy, Annabelle Davidson Tuller, Rachel Leasure, Alberta Jackson, Miss Lou Glick, and Fannie Baker.
Mr. and Mrs. Earl Green have made the Glick School into a neat, convenient and attractive dwelling.
The Brand school is today the picturesque home of Mr. and Mrs. Algie Taylor, 4195 Brand Road.
“Backward, turn backward, oh Time in your flight,
And, make me a child, again, just for tonight.”
I know you won’t mind strolling down Memory Lane for a few minutes. Let’s go to the Brand schoolhouse, where there was no well and the water was carried by the pupils in a pressed, paper-like bucket from the well of the home of Mr. Joe Thompson, now owned by Mr. and Mrs. John Herron, Brand Road. A tin dipper was always in the bucket of water and the pupils were fortunate having two tin-cups to use. Between the schoolhouse and Mr. Thompson’s house was a nice pond. In freezing weather, the scholars skated on the pond and, on warm, balmy days, they caught frogs. The desks were large enough for their books, apples, a frog and maybe a cricket. Do you remember the day the teacher threw her bunch of keys at a mischievous lad. The boys wore felt or leather boots and the girls wore their aprons. Slates and slate-rags were used; few had sponges. Mr. Frank Meddick, of Worthington taught at this school and boarded with the Luther Mitchell family.
A few of the Brand School teachers: Blanche Tipton Rings, Katie Thomas Weber, Arnold Brown, Nellie Ault, Mina Blackford, Frank Meddick, Geo. Bonham, Mrs. Geo. Bonham, Mae Pickard, Rilla Wilson, Rosie Eger Roop, Dale Shriver, Nellie Yealey, Geo. DeWitt and Forest Martin.
A few of these scholars, later, were members of the famous old Dublin Cornet Band that was formed in 1879.
White teachers: Merrill McKitrick, Mary Green Tate, Mary Jane Armstrong Sherwood, Louise Artz Orr, Ora Skinner VanScoyck, Rilla Cosgray, Edna Artz Dudley, Clara Cosgray Smith, Benj. Cosgray, Geo. Horch, Newton (Ted) Davis, Mrs. Geo. Bonham, Clarence Pinney, Randy Eastman, Addie Hughes Baughman.
Later years, Ted Davis did much good in Florida as a minister. He died in Ashland, Ohio—in the Spring of 1959, in his sun-set days at the age of 83. On May 29, 1958, he visited the abandoned White Schoolhouse and stopped to chat with Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Tuller, Sr., Brand Road. Upon leaving, he looked at the flower garden, then, with a twinkle in each eye, he said, “Mrs. Tuller, you won’t find these many flowers in Heaven”. He told, how his mother, on her death-bed, had handed him her Bible, and said, “Ted, teach others from this book”.
The White School closed and the pupils were transferred to the Brand School. A school board member, Mr. Luther Mitchell, Sr., and his wife, of 6992 Dublin-Bellpoint Road, hauled the children in an express-like wagon. They called it “the kid cart”. He or she and their faithful team, Daisy and her daughter Fannie, made the rounds in torrid and frigid weather. The wagon had a bench on each side, side-curtains that could be rolled up and tied. Mrs. Mitchell did most of the driving of the school-wagon, and Mr. Mitchell helped Mr. Goble, the mortician, at Worthington. Later, Mr. Jerry Myers furnished the school wagon, driving his team, Bess and Brownie. When the new school was built, on the west side of Dublin on ye old Post Road, his son Melvin drove the schools wagon and attended the eighth grade the Fall of 1916.
Mr. Lawrence Myers, a son of Mr. Jerry Myers, of 8133 Worthington-Galena Road, remembers his father’s school-wagon with the two benches, and having to put on the heavier team, Charlie and Belle, when the mud was deep. A Mr. Blake lived on Price Lane, and for one whole week the lane was too muddy for the school-wagon. So, Lawrence, Charlie and Belle went in and brought the children of school age out on horseback, one riding behind Lawrence and the other two children on the other horse, to Ashbaugh Road.
Mr. George Eger, a native from across the pond, Germany, lived many years on a lane south of the Goble farm. His children attended the High School in Dublin, Ohio, a 3-½ mile walk. His daughter, Rosie, was the school teacher. She taught two years on Tuttle Road, walking 5 ½ miles, building her own fires, for the large sum of $42 a month. In severe weather, her father would take her to school, driving a workhorse, to an open-top buggy. Mr. M.G. Myers, Avery Road, is very proud to say, “She was one of my teachers at the Brand School”.
Rosie died February 1953, buried in the Dublin Cemetery.
Today, Ashbaugh Road is not a mud-road, like it was in the early thirties, but a nice tar-bound road. In traveling from Brand road north, you cross over the north fork of Indian Run, then, just north of Mr. Leonard Tuller’s tool and cattle shed and a private lane, stood a log house that Mr. Tuller razed the summer of ’32. Mr. Albert Sharp told Mr. Tuller that he and his parents lived there when Mary Mitchell was remodeling the house making plans to marry Mr. Frank Goble. In the Sharp log house once lived a family by the name of Robison, Mr. Fred Thompson and his good wife, Emma Hodkins (daughter of Chas. Hodkins of Ashbaugh Road), Mr. and Mrs. Chas. Cane (he was a school-teacher), Mr. and Mrs. Tate Bice. The parents of Fred Thompson, we find, had at one time lived in this log cabin. The grandfather Thompson and wife are buried in Mt. Zion Cemetery. The last family to live there was Mr. Jas. Hunter.
After Mr. Tuller had moved on his farm (1933) a few years, he plowed up the brass door key to his log-house. About 1941, while mowing off a berry patch in his north pasture, he found a walled-up wet-weather spring, about 50 ft. northwest of a wild apple tree. Flat stones were many near the tree, the kind used, at an early date in building chimneys, and, in the nearby hedge-fence, are several nigger-head rocks, the size used in making the foundations for the older houses and barns. The Tullers were told, a few years ago by a friend that an old man lived “back there” near the southwest corner of his woods, in a cabin when this friend was a little girl and lived on Ashbaugh Road. A Plain City friend tells us—he was a very large, tall man, drove a horse to an express wagon with red boards on the side and bought cattle. People called him the Ironman.
The next family, living north of the Tuller farm, was Mr. Jerry and Flora Myers. The house stood back a short lane southeast of the Mt. Zion church. The wind-pump that can be seen today is near the site of the house. It was here, our good barber at Dublin Mose Myers was born. Mose was the last child in Franklin County on Ashbaugh Road.
Mrs. Jerry Myers died July 1913 at the young age of 42.
When Mr. Todd bought the farm, he moved the house across Ashbaugh Road to the rear of the old Isaac Artz farmhouse. The cistern at the Myers home is in use today as a water reservoir.
Just south of the church, at one time, lived Mr. Clem Bailey and his good wife, Allie. She was the daughter of Mr. And Mrs. Geo. Artz, also of Ashbaugh Road. Their son, Wilson, was born here and they remained ‘til Wilson was 7 years of age. Like her mother, Mrs. Bailey was always a very kind, bighearted neighbor, wife and mother. A great book could be written about her, helping the poor, needy, homeless, and the orphans. She was the type who could smile, let the skies be blue or gray. Here is proof: “the goodness of a good mother can be seen in seven generations”.
The family of Mr. Harris (Munk) Morgan was the last to occupy this house. Mrs. Morgan died a few years ago. He lives near Marysville.
The first house east side of the road in Delaware County was the home of Mr. and Mrs. Cyrus Freshwater. When they moved from Ashbaugh Road he sold it to Mr. and Mrs. Enoch DeVault.
Mr. and Mrs. John Duncan and family moved there in the late twenties. Mr. and Mrs. Ray Chamberlain are the present owners. The Chamberlains razed the old house in ’49 and built their new house in 1951. About four years ago, a peacock paid them a visit, staying several months. It is common to see deer in their pastures and adjoining woods.
Next dwelling north: This is the lovely home of Mr. and Mrs. Everett Buckner, built in 1941. Just east, north side of their private lane, is the home of her mother, Mrs. Robt. Erickson. The late Mr. Erickson and wife bought this home in 1940. A few years before, Mr. and Mr. Lawrence and Florence Crambilt built this house and had lived there.
We are now at the intersection of Ashbaugh-Glick Roads. Looking northeast to the clump of trees, you will see the site of another very old house that was built on the Gus. Reibel farm. You will find it marked on the 1901 Geological Survey map. We find a Mr. Tom Stids, Mr. Poofies and a Meeker family at different times lived there.
Coming south in Delaware County on the west side of the road is the abandoned log-house and homestead of Mr. and Mrs. Geo. Artz. The Kings lived here about 70 years ago. Mr. and Mrs. Ben Drake bought this farm and moved here with their 2 sons, Silas and Lou. The grandchildren are all that remain of this family today. This is the last of the pioneer cabins on Ashbaugh Road.
Next house is in Franklin County, the homestead of Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Artz. The cellar can be seen, today, on the hill, just north of Price Lane. The last family to live here was Mr. Fred Price, Sr.
Mr. Moses Cosgray and his wife Nettie lived here when their youngest daughter, Michal, was born. Mr. Cosgray was a brother of the school-teacher Benjamin Cosgray, and served on the school board. Rilla Cosgray, who taught at the White School, was a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Mose Cosgray. Miss Clara Cosgray, who taught at the White School, was a daughter of Mr. Benj. Cosgray.
In the first house on Price Lane, lived Sell and Ida Thompson Price, son of Mr. Adam H. and Phoebe Price. She was a sister of Mrs. Ellis Brown, Linworth, Ohio.
In the second house on the Lane, lived Mr. Murray Artz, brother of Gideon Artz and the third house was the home of Mr. Adam Hatfield Price and his wife Phoebe. We are told the Price Lane was named for this Mr. Adam Price. Their son, Leroy, died at the age of 16 and was buried in the Mt. Zion Cemetery. Mr. and Mrs. Price are buried in the new Dublin Cemetery, near the entrance. (A Mr. Blake also lived on Price Road at one time.)
South of Price Lane, and across the road from the Cemetery and Church, was the home of a Mr. and Mrs. Boyer. Mrs. Arvilla Wilcox of Plain City, Ohio, was a daughter.
Next farm south is the 45 acres, for years owned by Mr. Curtis Artz, Sr. This was the home of the early settler, Mr. Enoch Ashbaugh, and later Mr. Chas. and Nanny Hodkins.
Farm accidents occurred in the early days, as today. “—-on land owned by Frank Goble, a man named Lawyer settled in 1830 and was killed by a falling limb from a tree, 1832.”
Asbury Price, 38, son of Adam H. and Phoebe and a brother of the teacher, Sam Price, met with a horse accident —- dying September 1894.
Mr. Chas. Hodkins’ daughter, Alice, had ridden her horse to Dublin for groceries and the mail. She rode home fast, to beat a threatening storm, tied the horse in a barn and was standing in the doorway, with a pitch-fork in one hand, when a bolt of lightning killed her on March 22, 1898 at the age of almost 21. Alice and her parents are buried in the Dublin Cemetery.
Upon seeing the stones, spring and grassy knoll at the site of the Hodkins’ homestead, we recalled the lines of Mildred Schanck in “The Haunted House”.
“In midnight hours the gaunt mice race and weird owls cry,
And memory of a dear girl’s face comes with a sigh
Of winds that mourn about the place, to passersby!”
It was common to get up on a winter morning and shake the snow off the bedding before dressing. On a bad, snowy night, the snow would sift under the clap-board roof and fall on the covers. Later, they started to split trees, making pickets and rails for fences.
Mr. Jerry Myers had a baseball team called “Seldom Seen”. Mr. Corbin’s team was named “River Rats”. They would tie their horses in the Mt. Zion church-yard and play east of the church, in the pasture field of Mr. Myers. Some of the players were Beverly Pinney, Vinton Corbin, Howard Orr, Sherman and Lou DeVault, Clarence Snouffer, Jerry Myers and his two oldest sons, Bill and Marion played. Mr. Myers was the manager.
There was so much interest created among the young men and the entire community, that when Attorney John Todd bought the farm and Mr. Myers moved to the Edwards farm on Glick Road, a new ball-diamond was made on the Chas. (Jigger) Smith farm, today known as the John I. Thomas farm. Can you remember seeing those boys play? Bidwell Clarence and Wayne Snouffer, Beverly Pinney, John, Had and Lawrence Artz, Frank Renner, Bill Porschett, Leslie Hall, Doc Seeds, Lee Price, Joe Sells, Howard Orr, Tom Wing, Charlie McClelland.
Mr. Jerry Myers, John Snouffer, Mr. John Howard and Mr. Corbin had baseball and the future of these young men in this community at heart. As a player said, “When you play baseball, you’ve no time to get into any mischief”.
These side stories are interesting. A little girl whose parents and she, lived a “stone’s throw” from Ashbaugh Road, was starting to school in the first grade. She cried and cried, “Cause she didn’t want to go to the Brand School, but, wanted to go to High School with Rosie Eger (Roop).”
Fifty-five years ago a father and mother went blackberry picking on Ashbaugh Road at the time when their young chickens were not big enough to eat. When the parents returned home, the mother asked, “Did you have a good dinner?” The little 5-year old son replied, “Why, Mommy, did you smell the feathers burnin’?”
Another cute story about a little boy, who started in the first grade at the White School. In the morning, he wore his overcoat. In the evening, he did not wear his overcoat home, ‘cause it was too hot to wear an overcoat. Nothing can compare to the thoughts and chatter of a little child.
On January 10, 1914, a little girl was born in the neighboring community and later lived on Ashbaugh Road. That night, it started to snow, getting deeper and deeper. For weeks, the school wagon could not run. Her brothers and sisters were picked up in a big sled, plus robes and horse-blankets, to keep the children warm. The snowdrifts were high, as high as the rail and picket fences that predominated in those days. Many recall this deep snow of March, 1914. People are few and scattered that can relate one story on “the Pioneer Days”.
The visit with Mr. and Mrs. Lou Wollam, just east of Jerome, Ohio, was interesting, also very helpful in writing this story.
The Wollams live on the old homestead of his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Peter Wollam. His father, coming to Ohio in 1830, and building the present house in 1841, tells a great story without words: a young couple who tried and won. One night, when his grandfather was coming home from Dublin, a panther followed, close by, but not coming out in the open for him to take an aim. The panther, very likely knew he had only one load of shot in his gun.
Lou Wollam recalls when he was around 12 years of age or 71 years ago, he and his parents going to Mt. Zion Church once with Rev. Prince (pastor of Bellepoint Church), the pastor giving the sermon. The pastor lived on the Milt Wollam farm.
An ex-neighbor, and one who had —- long, known the Drake family, accompanied me, visiting the abandoned, log house of the late Mr. Ben and Emma Drake. Upon arriving, a few scattered leaves in an apple tree fluttered and waved, seemingly a welcome. The pine and yellow rose leaned backward and forward, then bowed to us as if to say, The Master is away, but glad you came again. We found the kitchen door open, that seemed familiar and we recalled the words of hospitality, “Come in, come on in”. Many times, the neighbors had taken 4 ft. cut of a hickory log to Mr. Drake, as he was a genius in making axe and mattock handles. The wide logs were well preserved and editions of the Ohio Farmer papered the log walls in the attic to keep out the wind and weather. We found an edition of the Ohio Farmer, October 25, 1894, subscription rate $1.00 per year, Cleveland Ohio, office. It had been sent to Harry E. Artz.
A lady, who lived on Ashbaugh Road when a child remembers being in the Mt. Zion Church about 70 years ago. The church had an organ, the pulpit, Bible, song books and church pews, but cannot recall who was the organist.
Mrs. A. D. Strosnider of Sunbury, Ohio, born to Mr. Geo. W. and Mary Evans Artz, 84 years ago last November gave us a splendid pen picture of the Mt. Zion Church. “We lived near the church: my father was the custodian. The pews, pulpit and bench (back of the pulpit) for the minister, were all fastened to the floor. The pulpit was built on a platform, up 2 steps. There were 2 stone steps in front of double doors in center front of the church, 3 windows on the north and 3 on the south side.” She recalls “attending ice socials and strawberry festivals, etc., held on the lawn to help raise money to support the church”.
She remembers her mother, Mrs. Mary Artz, Melissa Cosgray and Burbridge Cosgray were some of the teachers of the Sunday School. She was born just across the drive from the church and as a little girl recalls playing in the church-yard and later, when there no longer were meetings, she played in the building. The ministers did not live in this community and usually stayed at their house.
Mrs. Glendora Strosnider’s daughter, Mrs. Frank Hoover, Sunbury, Ohio, tells us, “I was quite young, but can remember the windows boarded up and enjoyed going down near the church and gathering wild roses”. While we are unable to find a picture of the church, it was Mrs. Hoover who helped us find the needle in the haystack—the key to the Mt. Zion Church. She has it in her possession, also her grandfather’s Bible.
Further Interesting Notes
Our settlers who came here in the early 1880’s: Mr. James Ewing Donaldson came to Ohio in 1798 at he age of 6, settling in Union County. His father died early and James was raised by his grandmother and Uncle James Ewing. In 1816, he married Cynthia Dodge. In 1832, he bought 232 acres in the N.W. part of Washington Twp. (in the Means Survey, No. 45, 162). He built a shanty to live in during he summer and in the Fall completed a hewed log house.
They had 4 sons: James, Jr., J. Werden, Israel C. and David M. James, Jr. lived on part of the home farm and his brother J. Werden lived on the east side, nearby. Their mother lived with James, Jr.
In 1829, Richard Hays settled on the Run (Indian Run), south of Donaldson’s in 1828. Adam Price 1828-settled also here. Joe Filler of Frederick Co., Maryland, came here in 1837 and bought 50 acres (in the Gilliam Survey) close by, later the Geo. Eger home, south of Gobles. He died September 12, 1882, age 81.
A neighboring man was a Mr. Cole who settled in 1820 or 30 (just over the line in Union Co.)
Iden and Finley Bishop (Leland and Howard Bishop’s great grandfather) settled previous to Donaldson about 1826. (Just over the line in Union Co.) Iden was Tim’s (Leonard Tuller) great-grandfather.
The Donaldson farm later was the Terpie, Todd, Palmer, Antrim and today, the owner is Mr. J. L. Waisman of Columbus, Ohio. Our early settlers brought with them such necessary things for their homes as the “Spinning wheel, flax board, Dutch oven , Tables, chairs, forks, knives, spoons, pewter and wooden utensils, guns and cabin lamps. It took about 95 days to travel here from Connecticut.”
(The above is only history of the life and settling of our earliest settlers. The Adam and Harry Price (1828) and Donaldson’s very likely are all you can use, but thought you might like to read it, I jotted it down for my reference also. Their two half-brothers, Iden and Finley, came from Warrentown, Faquier County, Va. Iden lived to be 3 months less than 95 years of age. (1803-1897) So, the tough, rough life didn’t seem to hurt him, did it? We already had the family line on the Bishops and know it is true, without checking. Prices and Donaldson’s are the only family on Ashbaugh Road for your Ashbaugh Road story. These others were only the first settlers northwest of Dublin and their only neighbors. Thought you might like to read about it.)
The Dublin post office was established about 1820. The first 10 years the mail was carried by stage coach from Columbus. The village of Dublin received two mails a week. A large number read the New York Tribune. Those who post mastered at Dublin in early days were: First Postmaster, Daniel Wright, 1820; Second Postmaster Moses Davis, about 1827; Third Postmaster, Isaac N. Walters, 1828; Fourth Postmaster, John Eberly, 1831 (and son Thomas); two more Postmasters were Dr. R. H. Merryman and Francis Riley. H. T. Eberly, father of Fay and Chas. M. was Postmaster 35 years at Dublin.
Another story I ran across, you might like to read. In 1815, Johnny Appleseed proposed to Nancy Tannehill but she was already engaged. He died, 3/11/1845, at home of Wm. Worth, in Indiana and buried 2 ½ miles north of Ft. Worth. When he died he had on for clothing next to his body a coarse coffee sack slipped over his head, around his waist parts of four pantaloons; over these a white pair complete.
While Dr. McKitrick was calling on patients, one day he told of seeing that day, lightening hit the steeple of the Mt. Zion church.
Rollie Manley recalled hearing that; the Mt. Zion Church was built on the highest point in Franklin County and remembers it having a bell and belfry.
Mr. Lewis DeVault, son of Mr. Enoch DeVault, and the father of Mr. Munk Morgan, rented a steam drill from a Worthington Party and drilled the first drilled well on Ashbaugh Road, 101 feet deep for the DeVaults. This well is in daily use today on the Ray Chamberlain farm.
The great-grandfather, Adam Price, his wife, Nancy Hatfield, and their son, Adam Hatfield Price, came to the U.S.A. from Wales and settled in Franklin County, when Adam H. was only four years of age (1828). Mr. Price taught his broom making trade to his son, who planted his own broom corn and sold brooms. From Avery Road to their log house was built a Corduroy Road (split logs laid side by side).
Adam H. married Phoebe Huston and had ten sons. They lived in the third house on Price Lane, off Ashbaugh Road. In their courting days, there were no buggies, so Adam H. and Phoebe rode one horse to the parson’s house and were married. Mr. Adam Price died in 1884 at the age of 60. Mrs. I. R. Billingsly, 6200 Post Road, Dublin, Ohio, is a granddaughter.
Neighbors on Brand Road tell us that there has been four deaths since 1940, and the wedding bells have rung three times since January 1929 on Ashbaugh Road.
In the 1840’s squirrels and wild turkeys were so plentiful “…it was common to kill two with one shot”. Franklin County for years claimed to have the most squirrels in comparison to other counties. The settlers often shot their supply of wild turkeys from their attic windows. Panthers, buffalos, timber wolves, were everywhere by the score. A pioneer was dressing one morning and saw a big snake under his bed. The last bear, in an adjoining county, was shot in 1840.
There was a sugar camp near Ashbaugh Road that helped supply this road and community with maple syrup and maple sugar for 75 and 50 cents a gallon. It was built by James M. Stewart. His son, Nathaniel M. (Mac) would drive to Columbus, taking a wagon load of maple syrup, lodging at the Farmer’s Hotel, South High Street. He would stay until his syrup was all sold. He would return to camp in 3 to 4 days. Mr. Samuel Corbin and his father, Dr. Corbin, were among their best customers.
Those living today were too young to remember much about the Mt. Zion Church, but while writing this story the Sunday School that was well attended on Sabbath afternoons in the White Schoolhouse has been mentioned so often so here is a tribute to that good cause and, a people who taught their children the profits of good, clean living. The Sunday School was formed by Mr. Frank Goble and Mr. Luther Mitchell, Sr. Mr. Mitchell was the Superintendent. Many have said, “I attended that Sunday School and Mrs. Luther (Julia) Mitchell was my teacher and my, but she was a good teacher!” The women and girls wore percales and ginghams, sang those good old soul-rendering hymns with the help of an organ and the organist, Miss Mary Mitchell. Mrs. Mose (Nettie) Cosgray was also a Sunday School teacher. A lady tells us of attending a chicken-noodle supper held at the schoolhouse, given by the Sunday School. This was a favorite dish of Mr. Frank Goble. Mr. George Artz was well-versed in the Bible and made another fine leader. After attending Sunday Schools at the Presbyterian Church in Dublin, Ohio, in the forenoon, the members would take home the song books and use them for Sunday School at the White School in the afternoon. “The Finest of Wheat”, “Bringing in the Sheaves”, “When the Roll is Called up Yonder”, “Blest be the Tie that Binds” and “God be with you Till we meet again” were among the favorites.
Three young folks were driving, one Sunday afternoon to the Sunday School services when the middle pin in the single-tree dropped out and the buggy ran into the end of a bridge near the White School. That was the day the horse Maud beat them to Sunday School, or at least she was ahead of the show.
Last but not forgotten is the little pony called “Prince” that was owned by the Myers children on Ashbaugh Road. He played his part with the neighbors who had no horse and buggy and saved many tired feet and legs walking to Dublin, Jerome or Powell for groceries and to the doctor.
The Mt. Zion Cemetery is a picture of quiet and beauty, surrounded by green rolling fields—about a mile from the bustle of the world on the highest point in Franklin County. The above shows our pioneers lived close to the law of their Bible and marked the graves of their loved ones, as God directed Moses in Exodus, to “Grave on stone the names of the children of Israel, –it shall be a statue forever unto him and his seed after him.” We do know 27 burials have been made here and at least 20 tombs removed. The oldest monument is dated February 17, 1760. On February 17, 1863 several men were blown up into the trees by the explosion of a saw mill boiler at Columbus, Ohio. We do know four who answered the heavenly roll and were buried here: Fletcher W. Dulin 27, John Bowersmith 18, John Baighly 38 and Mr. McCaulley.
The early days on Ashbaugh Road were, indeed, very interesting and exciting. They used Indian paths. Groups would get together for log rolling, building cabins, surrounded by Indian Villages of savages: Wyandots, Mingoes and the Delawares, plus bushels and pecks of wild animals not the tame kind that left Noah’s Ark, either. When enough land was cleared to raise a crop and pasture for a few cattle and oxens, the prices received only kept the wolf from the door. In 1811, prices were: 12 ½ cents per bushel for corn, 30 cents wheat, 68 cents for a large deer hide, 68 cents for four small deer hides”. In 1836, “Pantaloons to order, $1.00, tailor made suit $4.50, beef 2 cents a pound, pork 3 cents, eggs 6 cents a dozen, corn-fed steers $5.00 per head, home spun flannel 12 cents a yard.” In 1841, “school teachers received $13.97 a month”. It required 5 yards of material to make a wedding dress.
Their “first cradles were troughs made from Buckeye trees, since they were the easiest to dig out the centers.” “The cabins generally were 26 x 18 and built so that the kitchen, parlor, dining room, shoe shop, corn grater and repair shop were all in one room.” They had plenty of outside company since “there was one Indian to every 7 square miles.”
The early settlers before 1800 lived mostly on “potatoes, corn bread, milk, butter and wild meats.”
On yellowed pages of history we found the first churches in this community were at Dublin: Newlight, Methodist, Presbyterian, and the Christian. Columbus population in 1815 was 700; in 1820, 1450; and in 1830, 2437. In April 1798 there were only 120 white settlers in Franklinton.
A visit with Mrs. Iva G. Wollam Seely, near Jerome, was indeed a pleasant one. When a young girl, she recalled attending church one evening 71 years ago at the Mt. Zion Church. The Rev. Albert Prince delivered the sermon. He was a red-headed, red whiskered preacher who lived on the now Kiss Road and had three children: Bertha, Hattie, and Theadore. She at 80 remembers the church was finished in walnut and had a balcony. John Wollam, a cousin to Mrs. Seely, sold organs and pianos in this community and taught music by notes. A Mr. Frank Baughner taught pupils to play the chords. Aunt Iva has the walnut cupboard her parents, George and Jane Kaylor Wollam, started to housekeeping with in 1872. Mr. Wollam gave 10 bushels of wheat to Mr. Henry Hensel for making them the cupboard.
Mrs. Glenna Fickle Thompson, 82, widow of the late John Thompson, who died in ’38, tells us they lived once on Price Lane east of Mrs. Phoebe Price.
The settlers’ homes were their castles and much care was taken and plans made to build on high elevation, never on low lands where rising waters from streams and floods might destroy their homes and few possessions, for which they were doubly thankful. They always settled near a spring, river or creek for water supply for themselves and their few stock. They surely would have a Rip Van Winkle feeling should they awaken from their long slumber. There are flat stones, used for chimneys, large, round, foundation rocks, cellars, maybe a fruit tree, cedar or well, that mark the sites of these pioneer homes, built in the early 1800’s. “As long as grass grows green, the rivers run free and the sun sets in the west.” We will give the early settlers high respect for their stick-to-it-ive ness, frugality and bravery.
The sole purpose for wanting to write this story is this: These good people, who once neighbored, labored and prayed together have, too soon, been forgotten—nothing left but the stones that bear their name.
Some Items About a Native Son
Mr. Curtis Artz, Sr., passed away in January, 1966. I attended his funeral in Jerome, Ohio, and met Dr. Curtis Artz, Jr., only child of Curtis, Sr. and Bertha Artz. I received a letter dated February 3, 1966 from Dr. Artz. The letter is as follows.
“It was nice to see you in Jerome last week and I appreciated your presence at the funeral so much.
This letter in your file may remind you of my address and I will be glad to assist in any way possible. I have a fair amount of information in my family Bible. Maybe some additional photographs would be of value.
I have enclosed a couple of items about myself in case you might be interested in what has happened to one of the native sons in the community.”
Following I am presenting a brief and rough summary of those “couple of items”. Actually the “couple of items” numbered approximately 228!
Dr. Curtis Price Artz graduated from Jerome Ohio Township High School in 1932 (was valedictorian). In 1939 he received his B.A., M.D. degrees from Ohio State University. His education continued through 1950 in internships and residencies at various hospitals including “Surgical Residency, O.S.U.” In 1951 he received his M.S. degree (Surgery) from Baylor University.
He had military service at Brooke Army Medical Center, Fort Sam Houston, Texas and became Commanding Officer, U.S. Surgical Research Unit, and Chief of Research Service.
His medical experience began at Parkersburg (West Virginia) Academy of Medicine in 1941 and continued through to 1965 (in this resume) when he was Professor of Surgery and Chairman of the Department, Medical College of South Carolina, Charleston, S.C.
Listed are eight of his special positions. Just to name two, (1) Member, Surgical Research team to Korea and (2) Coordinator, First International Congress on Research in Burns.
Among a number of honors was, in 1964, Alumni Achievement Award, Ohio State University College of Medicine.
Dr. Artz belonged to 21 professional organizations including the American Medical Association and Society of University Surgeons.
At the time the resume was written, 1965, Dr. Artz had authored and edited material in four books one of which is Complications in Surgery and Their Management, 1960. He had his work presented in fifteen books along with other authors. His work has been published in 144 scientific publications and journals.
Curtis Price Artz, Jr., M.D., was born September 29, 1915, Jerome, Ohio. He is married and has three children.
(Thanks, Dr. Artz, for the material from which the above material was accumulated.)
Notes; July, 2002
- The Mt. Zion Cemetery can be seen just north of the intersection of Memorial Drive and Kinross, in Muirfield. The Mt. Zion Church probably was just south of and adjacent to the cemetery.
- Some terms from the oral history that might not be familiar to readers:
- cistern: an artificial reservoir or tank for holding or storing water or other liquids
- hewed log house: house of logs made, formed, or shaped by blows with a sharp instrument (contrast with sawed-log house)
- kith and kin: acquaintances or friends and family connections
- larder: a room or place where meat and other articles of food are kept before they are cooked
- nigger-head rocks: any hard, dark-colored nodule or boulder; esp. a black or blackish boulder in a glacial drift
- pantaloons: a leg garment of varying styles; a tight-fitting man’s garment consisting of breeches (covering hips and thighs) and stockings in one; later, a name for trousers
- percales and ginghams: fabrics; percale is a fine, closely-woven cotton fabric f a smooth finish, often printed on one side; gingham is a kind of cotton or linen cloth, usually in stripes or checks, of tow or more colors, the yarn of which is dyed before it is woven
- tar bound road: roadway covered with gravel bound or mixed with tar to keep the material from scattering off the roadway
- wind-pump: a windmill, or wind-driven water pump