THE MEEKER, OHIO REVIEW

THE MEEKER, OHIO REVIEW

BY: THE SENIOR CITIZENS

CIRCA 1973

MEEKER REVIEW

On December 19, 1966 the Women's Society of this community gave a Christmas Luncheon for the Senior Citizens. The luncheon was served country style. Twenty-seven were present. A review of Meeker History was given, which proved quite interesting. It was decided to compile a History of stories, reminiscence of the group---a great regret is in entering upon this work, it will not be a full History, but gathering the notes and facts has been a delight and amazing in such memories. We owe thanks to each Senior Citizen who has contributed to this review.

Stories we have heard and read of this little town, give us a touch of pride, romance and pioneering. The "Old Swimming Hole", by James Whitcom Riley, is accurately descriptive of our own thought that we quote the following lines:

" Oh the old swimming 'hole' In the long days,

When the hum-drum of school made so many runaways,

Now pleasant was the journey down the old dusty lane,

Where the track of our bare feet was printed so plain.

You could tell by the dust and the sole, there was lots

Of fun on hand at the old swimming 'hole'.

" Oh the old swimming 'hole' where I last saw the place,

The scenes was all changed, like the change in my face,

The bridge of the rail road crosses the spot,

Where the old diving hole lies sunk and forgot.

And I stray down the banks where the trees used to be

But never in my life will there shade shelter me.

And I wish in my sorrow I could strip to the soul;

And dive off in my grave like the old swimming hole.

Many happy reflections casts their shadows in silhouette, the setting sun, the rising sun's full ray's on the church and (as of today) to see people wending their way in the sunlight to the house of God, was (and is) a happy, peaceful and sacred scene. Closeness of families and friends, taking time to stop and chat awhile, the helping hands-- the togetherness of a small town. "As distance lends enchantment to the view", so age adds value and importance to a knowledge of persons and events. "So whether we were the preachers children, the shoe makers--or the tailor's son--there is a rich and worthy commeration to the legacy they left us".

NAME THE MEEKER SENIOR CITIZENS MARRIED

Anderson, Lewis ..........................................................................................Marie Davis

Anderson, Marie

Anderson, LeRoy* .......................................................................................Mildred Day

Anderson, Mildred

Barnthouse, Cora (Coon) ............................................................................ Homer Barnthouse*

Borland, Lawson ........................................................................................ Edna Lutt*

Burnsides, Mae (Soules).............................................................................. Edgar Burnsides*

Carpenter, Maemie (Metz).......................................................................... Robert Carpenter*

Carpenter, Grace ......................................................................................... Noah Carpenter*

Carr, Dan .................................................................................................... Margaret Schaber*

Chambers, Gordo ....................................................................................... Hope Corey

Chambers, Hope

Corey, Irvin .............................................................................................. Mabel Hill

Corey, Mabel

Day, Mae (Metz)......................................................................................... Vern O. Day*

Denney, Stella (Thacker)............................................................................. Ernest Denney*

Ferguson, Margaret .................................................................................... Berlin Ferguson*

Gamble, Nellie (Seacord)............................................................................. Earnest Gamble*

Haley, Rev. Fredrick W.............................................................................. Grace Hilda

Haley, Grace

Hecker, Vern* .......................................................................................... Marina Criswell

Kraner, Millie (Clixby) ............................................................................ Ralph Kraner *

Layman, Walter* ..................................................................................... Imo Fritch*

Mattix, Ruth (Smith) ............................................................................... Emil Mattix *

Mawer, Margie (Cheney) ........................................................................ Edwin Mawer*

Metz, William ......................................................................................... Kathryn Cleveland

Metz, Kathryn

Miller, Earl ............................................................................................... Mable Brown

Miller, Mabel

Miller, Arnold .......................................................................................... Gladis Roux*

Murphy, Oscar* ....................................................................................... Mildred Rhoads

Murphy, Mildred

Newport, Ellen* ........................................................................................ Ronald Newport*

Peters, Iva* ............................................................................................... Frank Peters*

Potts, Gerald B............................................................................................. Rowena Sims

Potts, Rowena

Rhoads, Florence (King) .......................................................................... Dale Rhoads*

Rhoads, Harold ......................................................................................... Neva Hatfield

Rhoads, Neva

Roszman, Odessa* .................................................................................... Ralph Roszman*

Schaber, Grace

Schlecht, Helen (Smith) ............................................................................ William Schlecht*

Schlecht, Bernard ...................................................................................... Gladis Tong

Schlecht, Gladis

Schertzer, Lucy ......................................................................................... Bruce Schertzer*

Schreck, Helen (Pace) ............................................................................... Gene Schreck*

Soules, Charlotte (Clixby)......................................................................... Richard Soules*

Shotte, Florence (Clay)* ........................................................................... Clay Shotte*

Schmidt, Edna (Heil) ................................................................................ Edward Schmidt*

Swick, Monnie (Freshcorn) ...................................................................... Clarence Swick*

Thibaut, Mary (Burge) .............................................................................. Henry Thibaut*

Thomas, Maud (Gutherie)*........................................................................ Earl Thomas*

Waer, Ilda (Harris) ....................................................Carl Williams* / Foster Waer

Washburn, Frank* .................................................................................... Elsie Gore

Wood, Eva ................................................................................... Howard Wood

* DECEASED

OUR LITTLE TOWN

This little town, of many names,

Stands quiet and serene;

It shows not a sign as we pass by

Of the things its years have seen.

There was a time it was quite small,

A general store and post office was about all.

The years have passed by, and now my Friend

We are reviewing it all over again.

There is many a name of prominence and renown

That have lived and shared in our little town.

Often we wonder, in this Life's mad race,

Have the years been kind to our little place?

Schools, picnics, In Fares, how memories soften our

youths lovely face.

There was the jolly Cookston boys, Heckers, Woods and

Bakers, Davis, Metz, Wiles, McKelveys and James,

Fords, Shultz, Murphys, and Andersons, That Lewis was

the one who woo'd and married our Marie,

It is all in the Review for us to see.

Many a scholar graced its schools,

Many a teacher taught the rule; Mildred, Auril,

Earl and Jim, Mae Mac, Vern all pass in review,

Maemie, Jessie Lelah, Iscah and Bill, the Metz

Children, Paul Chonet, the grand master, all taught

school.

To name them all, there would be no end

From our little town around the bend.

It would be a joy, if we could behold

A picture of all the Memories its story has told.

We love the memories of the past,

A toast we give today; To Cochranton, Scott-Town MEW- as....

And Meeker too,

We bring you varied memories, to share in the Review.

Kathryn Metz

MEEKER

At the four corners of Grand, Salt Rock, Big Island and Montgomery Townships is the little town of Meeker, Ohio. In the early day's the little hamlet was Cochranton, Scott Town It was a community of Inns, Taverns, Blacksmith Shops, Livery barn, Wood making shop, Casket making, Hardbakes Milliner shop, Stone Mason works, Scale and Stock Yard.

Up to 1812 but few attempts were made to invade the country, thus still in reserve except a restless hunter or trader who sought the fine game of the plains for meat or pelts. Bee hunters, a venturesome set, who preferred to line a bee tree to any other pursuit, brought back rich treasures of sweets that of the wild bees. Several trails or war roads :led through Marion County.

Some say Daniel Markley built the first cabin in what is now Montgomery Township in about 1820. He kept sort of a wilderness entertainment house for all who passed by. This being the only traveled trail for twenty or thirty miles up and down the river. He vacated in 1824 and the cabin was destroyed by fire during the burning of the woods. The place was afterwards known as the site of "Danny's Cabin". The next was Samuel Franklins at Cochranton.

William Virden one of the pioneers that settled near Meeker, cleared away space and built a cabin, at the date of his settlement here, there were only Indian Trails leading from his property to county roads, and primitive conditions prevailed. For a number of years his neighbors were Indians, with them records show he maintained peaceful relations.

The coming of William Cochran in 1823 starts the names of our little town. He came from Penn., bought a section of land (640) acres opened a store and later a post office was established, and they named it Cochranton. Col. Cochran lived here until 1827-28, then moved to Grange County, Ind., and died their later. Cochran lived in the cabin built by Samuel Franklin, later built a frame 18 by 20 feet in size. The Post Office was in this building. Cal. Cochran was a worthy specimen of frontiersman, he could crack a joke or tell a story with fluency sufficient to attract attention in almost any company. He was an active church member taking part in all services, but would not hesitate to kill a deer even on the Sabbath Day if one came near his cabin. The frugal and industrious always finding him a friend in deed.

When a pioneer set his feet towards new land, with a dream of his own home and family, he took three things with him, his gun, axe and his seeds. We wonder at what he knew, here was a man who could build a cabin, house, ore barn, a scoot or a wooden pipe, cut posts, split rails, cut his timber and season it, make fences, lay up walls and dig wells. He was a sower, repairer, reaper, cattleman, shepherd, veterinarian and butcher, and on the lighter side he smoked his meat, tended bees, made sugar and cider, grew fruit. In this time every thing had a value, and nothing was discarded, seeds the irreplaceable were stored away, a handful of seeds if a man had none, could have been given for a gift of need, is beyond value.

After Cochran went west, Alexander Gillespie was postmaster, served two or three years, Frazier Gray succeeded him and served till his death which occurred ten years later.

Herman Scott came in 1844, bought 120 acres of Cochran's land and he started a store, and the town was changed to Scott Town, but the Post Office remained Cochranton. In 1851 Scott went to California, and other merchants were subsequently Thomas Mahal, Allen Delong, W. C. Delong, for about four years John Kennedy, A. W. Buell, John Hosetter and John Grubb, Dr. Stroup was physician and druggist.

First settlers were Ebenezer Roseberry, Valent, Albert Alcott, Billes, Hugh Smith, Enoch Clark, Mahlon Marsh, Richard Hopkins, John McKelvey, and Platt Brush. People were in a condition of complete social equality. The rich and the poor dressed alike, men wearing hunting shirts and buck skin pants; women in coarse fabric produced by their own hands.

About 1905 or 06, there came to Scott Town a man by the name of Meeker. He formed a company to have an inter urban line through. Ell Masons barber shop was to be the station and ticket office, but the plans did not materialize. At that time the name was change to Meeker, Ohio.

MEEKER - OLD LAND MARKS

The George Rhoads home now occupied by Raymond Rhoads and family (grandson) is one of the oldest homes.

The Al Rhoads home owned by Florence Rhoads, also one of the old land marks. They came here from New Jersey by covered wagon and his name was Alpha Omega Rhoads. (Sounds like they lived close to their Bible.)

The old community house (which stood back of Maemie Carpenters home) held a lot of memories, school days, community activities. There was an artist by the name of Julies Delbus sat on Wiles' front porch and painted a picture of the old community house, and Francis Gamble said this picture was on display in Washington, at one time.

Before the Union Church was erected, the Methodist and Christian Societies held meetings in the Seaborn School House, the church was built in 1865 for $2,200, besides $50.00 for the ground, Zion, Paw-Paw and Free Will Baptist. All used this Church.

The Methodist Church at this time organized in 1868 at the school house, eleven members, for about three years the meeting were held in the school house. A church was erected in 1871, in size 34 by 48 feet, at the cost of $3,000. Pastors were: (J. Parlett, C. Weaver, D. R. Rinehart, J. V. Stanley, R. Hager, E. H. Cammans, C. M. Biedasil, J. Williams, and P. L. Webster).

Falling of the stars was on November 13, 1833, people gathered together to pray and ask God for more time, this was told by John Dutton.

GRAND TOWNSHIP---Receive its name (Grand) from the fact that it was the largest division of the county. At this time there were quite a number of settlers, at the first election, held on June 26, 1824, twelve votes were cast for William Cochran, who was justice of the peace. The first school house built about 1827, Miss Nancy Brown was school teacher, another was Michael Vincent, a good teacher, but cross and followed the old fashioned theory that if you spared the rod you spoiled the child. Another was Thomas Lapham taught in schools made of logs, which was later torn down and moved to Scott Town.

TOWNSHIPS

We have stated that Grand Township was so named as the largest township.

SALT ROCK- the name came from the following story, by Ebenezer Roseberry: "Soon after I came to this place, I shot and wounded a large buck, not so seriously, however, but that he could get over the tall grass on three legs. In the pursuit, I stumbled over what I though was a large rock, it loch white, I turned to break off a piece, and I declared it was pure salt." Of course this provoked the mirth of the company, and in the laugh which followed, Play Bush said, " That will do, Salt Rock shall be the name of this township".

MONTGOMERY- so named by order of the Board, that Township No. 5, South of Range No. 13, and all the Virginia Military Land lying south of said township be set off so named Montgomery.

BIG ISLAND- Thursday, June 10, 1825, Township No. 5, Range 14, This was a so called center, and for a time was thought it would be the County Seat. Big Island was a "Squatters Settlement, then when the Greenville Treaty effect, this land was put up for sale, was settled by the; Brittons, Dickersons Jones, Nortons, Messengers, Metz, Wheelers, Thompsons, Dudley, and Johnson families. This was an Indian Fort, on the highest point of land in the township. Also a big grove in the center of the prairie land. The Forts, one large and one small connected by a narrow passage, were said to be well laid out by good engineers later.

SCOTT TOWNSHIP- so named for Abraham Scott, an early pioneer.

IN REVIEW

TEACHERS-- (Schools 1915) Spring Hill, Maple Grove, Rhoads, Wildcat, Metz, Rush, Zion, Meeker High.

SALARY

M. D. Metz High School $68.00

W. V. Metz Seven Years $58.00

Bell Montgomery $58.00

Nell Young $58.00

Ercell Dickason $58.00

Vern 0. Day $58.00

Grace Titus $58.00

Louis Gracely $58.00

Bessie Roux $58.00

OTHER TEACHERS IN EARLY DAYS -- Mildred Day, Earl Thomas, LeRoy Anderson, Maemie Metz, Iscah Metz, Jessie Metz, Lelah Metz, Mae Metz, Florence King, Clarence Davis, Esther Gutherie, Maemie Montgomery and Martha Montgomery, Ernest Mason, Guy Miller, James Emmons and Paul Chonet.

W. A. Bulter Manufacturer of fine carriages, buggies, spring and wagon's repair neatly done, also a general Blacksmith 'Shop and work guaranteed.

W. R. Hatfield Carpenter and Builder.

A. T. Hedges Contractor and Builder

J. A. Holmes Carpenter and Builder.

S. S. Sprague Blacksmith of all kinds, neatly and promptly done.

J. H. Wood Merchant

Dr. Copland First Doctor

Rev. Parlet First Minister

Frank & Franty Wood Ran Hotel

On of the prominent characters of Scott Town was Billie Ducat, ran a hack driven by two horses he called Bill and Billy, took passengers to Marion, Ohio, and ran errands, brought the mail, got checks cashed for people, most anything they wanted him to do. He brought Mary Thibaut's first sewing machine out, first bakers from Marion, Ice cream to Lenn Metz who had an ice house. Uncle Lenn and Uncle John Webb had a butcher shop, and would go through the community with fresh meat, they said Lenn Metz could kill a beef faster and nicer than any one, and that he was a fine butcher.

Leonard Metz of Pennsylvania, came to Big Island Township 1822. They lived on a 140 area farm, would go Indian Mills at or near Upper Sandusky for grinding. His neighbors were Hugh Smith, Enoch Clark, the Woods', Hopkins and Carpenters. He killed 160 deer the first year. It is said he had the only rifle in the vicinity, was an expert rifleman, would hunt deer and other game for his neighbors, in exchange for rail splitting. Mr. Metz could split 200 rails in a day, and has reaped with s sickle 35 dozen sheaves of wheat. He and his boys made maple sugar and syrup every spring, had the largest camp around. Every fall an Indian by the name of Johnny Cake, would come from Sandusky with all the cranberries he could carry and traded them for maple sugar. People from miles around would have Mr. Metz daughter come and stir off their maple sugar, because they could make it such a good color. He made sugar by the barrel for winter use, and his children would have their sugar cakes put away in the barrels for winter candy. He purchased 40 acres of land at a time until he had 640 acres. Since the land was mostly woods, some were not to eager to own so much. He offered a 40 acre tract located west of the bridge, now Mae Day's land, for a team of oxen, the oxen were used for farm chores. He knew personally Indians by the names of Walker, Abe Williams, Warpol, Johnny Cake, Between the Eyes, Gray Eyes, Big Bear. There is a street in Upper Sandusky named Warpol. Lola McKelvey has his rifle. George Davis was postmaster and justice of the peace in 1858, they lived in Scott Town and ran the hotel livery barn.

In the 1890 Enoch Clark raised turkeys and drove them to market at night they would all roost in the trees along the way. The Meeker Kenton Road was mostly sand from Clarks sand pit, now where Larry Sims lives.

Alfred Schultz had a general store, had two bull-dogs to watch Sammy Kerr and Tom Moon, had stores in Scott Town. The big snake hunt took place in Big Island on Campbells farm, headed by Cap. Jackson Bradley, twenty acres was set afire, 13,930 snakes were found after. Children were afraid to go to school. One black racer was 9 feet, 4 inches long and 7 inches circumference.

John Hostetter, agent, for fine shoes about 1890, his calling cards read: The "Candee" Rubber Boots and Shoes are the finest in the world. The Opera Rubber a light, stylish, perfect fitting shoe for sale by J. Hostetter, Cochranton, Ohio.

Mrs. Lewis Anderson has a set of teaspoons her paternal grandmother Margaret Metz (better known as Aunt Peggy) won at the first Marion County Fair for riding in the parade. She road sidesaddle on a blue roan horse. John McKelvey then a boy, walked along side, the spoons are made of German silver. Dr. William Shira of Scott Town an excellent engraver, engrave her initials on each spoon. Dr. F. F. Fields came from Midway, Ohio, set up practice in Meeker in 1915, was here many years.

One of the songs the Seniors sing is "Down By The Old Mill Stream", and it has a special story due to a youthful romance that began along the Blanchard River near Findlay, Ohio. A pretty girl around sixteen and a young fellow about ten years older, courted along the river on sunny afternoons, but the youthful romance did not end in a wedding, for the girl found a new beau and married him. In 1900 Tell Taylor, the young man wrote this beautiful song, he did not get the girl but he arose to fame by writing over one hundred songs, at one time he played with Al Jolson in New York, giving the world many hours of fine entertainment.

IN REVIEW

There was a grange in the early days, people would go together and order food through the grange. A bank was started at one time, a cement block to be used before a safe was built, but the plan's did not materialize. A rail road was started, the old bed on land between Mae Day and Walter Layman's land. There was a Ladies Aid Society of M. E. Church, they held bazaars and socials.

Eliza Ann Van Houten was a sister of Lucinda Van Houten Gray --she stuck her riding whip into the moist ground, and it grew a large willow tree on the Wiley land. Time and weather took its toll and it blew down limb by limb-- Vern Day blew out the stump around 1930. When the Nellie Gamble family came (51) years ago, she said the town of Meeker was a pretty place of all white houses, water thoughts, hitching racks and every one owned their homes.

When Oscar Murphy came from Pulaski County, Indiana, they brought twenty one head of horses. Mildred (Rhoads) Murphy's family was one of the oldest in Marion County. Henry Rhoads came in 1825, and bought 240 acres of land from the government.

George Rhoads' purchased land near Meeker in 1866, which has been in the family ever since. Leonard Metz was an early settler came in 1822, bought 40 acres at a time until he had 640 acres of land.

The Marion Daily Mirror was the daily newspaper, rates of subscription was 2 cents per copy, 10 cents a week and $3.00 a year.

The Agosta Pike was built in 1901, most of the farmers worked on it. The first Marion County Fair was held on the McKelvey farm, the race track was on Ferguson land.

An oil well was drilled on the school grounds land at time. One day Dale Rhoads grandmother had baked bread, an group of Indians came, in her excitement, she gave them all her bread. Mary Delong would ride a mule to town for a pound of sugar, soft A, was all they had.

The first car (auto) that went through Scott Town, was a Stevens owned by Gillespie and Son. In 1900, Earl Miller had a Ford and a rumble seat, went 50 miles per hour. Ora Ford built an auto, kids would ride on boards, it got up the hill and stopped, they had to walk down.

Marie told about the old Lapham Brick, Rev. Crabtree lived there on road 27, some said it was haunted, was a spot on the floor that could not be washed away. There were whistling sounds heard, as the story goes, that a packpeddler went in, but never came out.

The price of coffee did not have the housewife in a tizy back in the good old day's, a customer paid eight cents a pound for green coffee, and 10 cents a pound for roasted coffee. In these days barter was as important as buying, for example, six bushels of apples were worth $1.25 in trade for merchandise. One bushel of potatoes was 50 cents, and a bushel of wheat was traded for a rocking chair. Seventy-five feel cherry lumber was the payment for one arm chair and eight chairs, costing $4.00. Five pounds of coal was worth 60 cents, 40 bushels of corn worth $14.00, a coffin including the box was available for $4.00 to $6.00 dollars. During the cholera epidemic in 1854, about July 20, cholera struck Marion County, and lasted until early fall, about 60 persons died. It was thought a person from Crestline, Ohio, brought it to Marion Ohio.

PERSONS OF PROMINENCE

FRAZIER GRAY: Postmaster of Scott Town, Member of the"Blue Hen's Chickens" of The Revolutionary Army, so named for their Bravery

GEORGE GRAY: Postmaster, Justice of the Peace of Montgomery Township, Probate Judge of Marion County, Ohio in 1860. Mayor of Marion, Ohio. People spoke of him with affection and respect. Always as Judge Gray.

EARL THOMAS Auditor of Marion County, Ohio, State Representative, School Teacher.

HORACE COOKSTON State Representative and Member of Legislator 1919 to 1929

POSTMISTRESS Mae Day, Dell Rhoads, Gayle Kinsler

POSTMASTERS Colonel William Cochran; Alexander Gillispie, Herman Scott, Frazier Gray, George Gray, George Bowers

VERN DAY NOTARY PUBLIC

FRANK WASHBURN Sheriff of Marion County, Ohio

MR. AND MRS. MACK METZ Custodians of Marion County Childrens Home. Mr Metz was principal of Glenwood School in Marion, Ohio.

JAMES C. EMENS (Celebrates 50 years of Teaching) Started in one room county school near Meeker, Ohio. He has taken work in eight different colleges and Universities during his teaching career. He spent 20 years as principal of Silver Street School in Marion, Ohio. He said flunking a student now and then, never hurt a bit. He recalls a successful sales executive thanking him for not passing him one year. He said his pride was hurt, and he learned he must work to get anyplace in life.

MARTHA M. MONTGOMERY A resident of Washington D. C. for more than thirty years. Was engaged in Government Work. Was Secretary to Senator Frank B.Willis of Ohio and Secretary to Myron Y. Cooper, Governor of Ohio. Was a teacher in County Schools.

ORA G. FORD Meeker, Ohio, handy man in the area for 67 years, is the craftsman who said, "I don't have much schooling but I have studied things". (I think of Leonardo Da Vinci) who studied every phase of his art to find knowledge. Ora build his own welding machine, automatic hammer, both worked to precision. A gardner, a fine wood worker. Build his own passenger boat and boathouse at Delaware Dam. Also said, "I'm the master of nothing."

MAURICE A. VIRDEN Served as member of Marion County Health Board.

CLARENCE DAVIS A retired teacher of accounting and other business. Was student of Spcerian School of Commerce in Lakewood, Ohio, born in Meeker, Ohio, taught in Marion, Ohio schools.

GEORGE W. BAKER Had a band. Baker was known as Marion's "Music Man," from 1890 to 1900. Bakers Band always played at the Farmers Picnic at the Fair Ground, and Blow Grove near Meeker, Ohio. He directed the band up until the Spring of 1917.

GEORGE GRAY At the age of 21, he married Mary Jane Barr, and on May 20, 1829, he and ten other people started for Ohio from Sussex County, Delaware. Their sole equipment consisted of a wagon and two horses. They traveled over the old National Road. Took nothing but bedding and clothes to save their horses they walked. With Mountains to cross over all the hazards of the wild regions feed to be prepared camp fashion, children to watch, their health and safety. This was a journey of courage. All was young and strong. The journey was made in the summer, one wagon to climb in for shelter. Now some wishes they had kept a diary. When they got here, earlier Delaware immigrants and old neighbors had preceded them. The McKelveys, Frames, Rhoads, Virdens and Waples. It was possible to raise a house in a few days, neighbors all gave a hand to the erection of a log house. George bought a one hundred and sixty acre farm northeast of Scott Town. It was later owned by the Lee family, then the Green Family. George did Beautiful wood work, houses, barns, furniture and veneer coffins. Scott-Town was a hamlet of log houses with but one large frame house in the center of the village, which become the family home of the Grays for many years. These early families lived by their own labors, even sugar cane from their own sugar trees, and white sugar was unknown, because they were so far from a water mill. Corn bread, hominy, and hog meat, and game such as rabbit, wild turkey and squirrels. Also vegetables, wild greens made up the diet that under skilled hands was delicious.

DALLAS DAY Held offices of County Recorder, Deputy Auditor, Assistant County Clerk and Recorder holding many offices of honor and trust.

THE INDIANS OF THIS VICINITY

The date of the arrival of the Wyandots and Ottawas in this county cannot be fixed with entire certainty, but is supposed to have been sometime around 1700 and 1725. The seat of the Hurons and Wyandots were upon the Sandusky Plains. The pioneers of Marion County speak very kindly of the Wyandots as a people, and gave them a high~character for integrity, fidelity and intelligence. Among them are favorable remembered Crane, Summundewat, Roamtenne, Walker, Johnnycake, Between The Logs and Captain Pike.

Friendly, yet savage, the Huron waged war upon the early settlers and carried to captivity so many persons that special expeditions were necessary for their recovery. Novel, story and song have all united in embalming the pages of history, legend and verse.

The burning of Col. William Crawford was an act of war, a brave officer of the Revolutionary War, the Delaware executed Crawford by right of capture, a Delaware having had that no mean honor, as it was considered among the tribes.

When they came to a white mans cabin, they expected to receive the hospitality of its inmates, if they did not, they were much offended. They would say, "Very bad man, very bad man". They would not accept a bed, they carried blankets, and would spread them on the floor.

THE LAST OF THE INDIANS

It was a sad and mournful spectacle to witness these children of the forest slowly retiring from their childhood home, that contained not only the graves of revered ancestors, but also many endearing scenes. They felt that they were bidding farewell to the hill's valley's and streams of their infancy, the more exciting hunting ground of their advanced youth, as well as the stern and bloody battlefield where they had contended in their manhood, all these they were leaving behind them to be desecrated by the plowshares of the white man.

Adieu to the graves where my fathers now rest!

For I most be going afar to the West.

Adieu, ye tall oaks, in whose pleasant green shade

In childhood I rambled, in innocent played.

Adieu ye loved scenes which bind me like chains,

While on my gay pony, I chased O'er the plains.

Adieu, to the trails, which for many a year

I have traveled to spy out the turkey and deer!

Sandusky, Tymochtee and Scioto streams

Never more shall I see you, except in my dreams.

Adieu, dear white friends, who first taught me to pr

And worship my Maker and Savior each day.

Pray for the white native, whose eyes overflow

With tears at our parting, Alas! I must go.

In Wyandot County the church is surrounded by a very old cemetery, where a few Indians are buried, among them the first converts, Between the Logs, who was quite a prater and participated in a number of Councils and Treaties. And in the cemetery is a headstone made famous by Ripley. The Wyandot moved to the West in 1843 and the church was abandoned, it was restored in 1865 and today is a National Landmark.

Copied from The Marion Star - Tuesday October 31, 1950

LETTERS OUR READERS

Editor of The Marion Star: Clean honest government can be had only by election to office those whose, character, honesty, integrity and reputation are above reproach.

Having served 25 years in the political arena I am beginning to wonder if we are not heading for destruction. We are in a state of confusion. Congress admits being confused. What sound reason could the average voters have for not being confused? We nominate and elect men for high office and what do we get? In New York State they bribe a candidate to withdraw. In Kansas City they steal the ballot boxes. In Congress they pad the payrolls and in Washington they give away deep freezes. Election day is close at hand and it's one of the most important elections in history. Four hundred and thirty-five Representatives and forty-five Senators are to be elected. This is the time for stay-at-home voters to take the time and cast your ballot for the candidates of your choice after having checked the qualifications of each candidate.

Ohio is the battleground. Has the time come when a man who has given 12 years of his life for the improvement of living standards, better working conditions, aid to education and many other pieces of legislation too numerous to mention, that a small group of rabble-rouser will be able to crucify his political life for the sake of power?

Don't let this happen in Ohio. Your vote is necessary to preserve our way of life. Accepting little Joe as their Candidate for U. S. Senator has been a bitter pill for these power-grabbers to swallow. They did every thing possible to defeat him in the primary. Failing in this, they purchased little Joe body and soul. To date I have heard or read of one qualification he has for the high office of U. S. Senator. They have financed his smear campaign, because the salary of the State Auditor does not justify such expenditures. This small group is not voting for little Joe, they are voting against Senator Taft.

The latest gutter-type propaganda being put out by these rabble-rousers from outside Ohio is that they can tell how the worker votes, and if it is not for the candidate of their choice you will lose your job. That is a barefaced lie. Check the qualifications of the two candidates for U. S. Senator, and then vote for the one whom you think will best serve your State and Nation. Earl E. Thomas R. F. D. 6 Marion, Ohio

DAYS OF MEEKER RECALLED BY AMOS B. GRAY

His First Recollection Dates Back to 1846

"Boiling Spring" and The Cold Clear Water

First Post Office in Town, now 100 Years Old, Opened by Cochran.

During 1923 many historical and interesting events were held in Marion County and some among these was the Meeker Centennial Saturday, November 19, was declared a holiday at Meeker and in addition to the entire citizenship taking part many former residents, who left Meeker years ago, returned for the celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the founding of Meeker formerly, Scott Town.

A. B. Gray one of Meeker first and oldest residents, prepared a very interesting historical sketch of the growth and development of Scott Town, covering a period of about eighty years. Mr. Gray relates many incidents which give color to the sketch. As follows:

"My first recollection of Scott Town dates back to 1846, when I was five years old. I then lived with my family on the farm now owned by the late Marion Green, which my father purchased in 1829, shortly after he moved into Ohio from Delaware. It was in Delaware that all of my family with the exception of my oldest brother was born."

THE BOILING SPRINGS:

"One day T had gone with my brother, John to visit my grandfather Frazier Gray, who lived on the hill just east of Scott Town. The Farm now owned by Samuel Morral. My brother told me he would take me to Scott Town to see the Boiling Spring, but I was much surprised and not a little disappointed to find that the water was cold and clear and had a strong taste of sulphur. The name "Boiling Spring" was used instead of "Bubbling Spring." This spring was on the lot afterwards purchased by Jacob Schultz and was filled up several years ago."

"Scott Town" when I first saw it, was a very small village all of the houses being constructed of logs and with the School house and one general store stood on the main street. The store was operated by Beebe and Beatty and stood on the site of present residence of Mr. Opperman. It was in this store that I spent my hard earned pennies for candy.

Mr. Beatty, partner in the firm of Beebe and Beatty, left Meeker later in life and was elected to Congress. His partner, Beebe, married Mary Scott, daughter of Herman Scott, founder of Scott Town. In 1849, shortly after his marriage, Mr. Beebe and wife, and Mr. Scott and a number of Scott Town residents, caught the fever of the California Gold Rush and left Scott Town for California. Before the party had traveled half the distance across the continent the members became discouraged through the loss of about half of the party and an epidemic of cholera. Mr. Scott and Joseph Shoots were so disheartened that they turned back and came home. Others of the famous Forty- Niners were James McKelvey, a brother-in-law of Mr. Scott, and John Hopkins. Mr. McKelvey returned to Scott Town two years after he started but Mr. Hopkins never returned although he lived many years.

HOUSES STILL STANDS:

The house constructed by Mr. Scott is still standing and is located at the rear of the home of Mrs. Sarah McKelvey. This farm was previously owned by Mr. Dick and Mr. Carpenter, whose subsequent movements I have no knowledge of.

In my early youth, when Meeker had just started to grow, we attended school at the Eagle School House and my school mates included the Taylors, Thompsons, Kings, Mousers, Davidsons and Marshs, none of whom are living to my knowledge.

Sunday School and Church Services were held at the old Union Church which was constructed early in the history of Meeker by popular subscription, each person in the community contributing a log or two. Others would contribute a tree for shingles which were made on the ground with saw, ax, trowel, mallet, drawing knife with the expenditure of much energy.-Others gave logs to make into flooring and siding and carpenters gave their time without cost. Nails were purchased by the wealthier residents. Some of the lumber was sawed in Fehl's saw mill near Marseilles on Tymochtee Creek. This mill was run by water power and was also a grist mill, the nearest one to Meeker.

FIRST POST OFFICE:

The first post office at Scott Town was opened by a man named Cochran for which the post office was named calling it Cochranton. This was before my recollection but I remember hearing that he built the first house in Scott Town on the hill across from the present site of the church, and constructed a tavern for the accommodation of the steady stream of emigrants going west. Almost any time during the early days of Scott-Town one or more emigrant trains were in sight and every family along the road was always ready to give assistance to travelers. They were made doubly welcome as they almost always could tell the latest news from the East and often from the loaf home or neighborhood.

The main line of travel through this part of the State lay between Marion, Ohio, and Kenton and another tavern stood just west of Scott Town on the Washington Miller farm known as Riegel's tavern and stood still farther west, near the present site of Hepburn was Wheeler's tavern.

MOVED TO FARM:

In 1851, we moved to the farm of George Rhoads neighbors included the Days, Hopkins, Woods, Spanglers, Frames, Metz, and Brittians. Among my schoolmates were Ab Jesse and John Rhoads, Hop, Martha, and Jane and all the Spanglers and Brittians.

While we lived on the farm the mail was carried on horse back from Marion, to Findlay once a week, the carrier delivering to all towns and villages along the route. He also delivered the mail to my father for which he received the sum of fifty cents a year, which was considered fair pay in those days.

At this time land was increasing in value very fast. My father bought his land for $18.00 an acre and sold it three years later for $30.00 an acre. In 1858, he bought the Scott farm, now owned by Mrs. Sarah McKelvey, for $50.00 an acre. After 1854, our home was in Scott Town and among our Friends and neighbors were the Porters, Smiths, Browns, Virdens, McKelvey, Van Houtens, Clements, Holmes, Mears. A family named Dodd moved into the neighborhood about this time and another by the name of Davis, Nathaniel Osborn, and William Dodd had a mill across the road, and a little south where Ernest Wiley's barn now stands.

WHERE SCHOOL HOUSE STANDS:

Al and Washington Delong had built a small structure and established a store on the lot where the spring was still bubbling out and where Jacob Schultz afterward had a shoe shop. Two men, named Edington and Pizley, had a blacksmith shop where the present barber shop now stands and a frame school house stood where the community house now stands. The Webbs, Hatfields, Masons, Butlers, Clarks and many others had moved in the town, and it grew slowly, but it was not until the Chicago and Atlantic Railway was surveyed half a mile south of town in early seventies that the streets running north and south were platted. The mail was still brought from Marion once a week, but later was carried from Agosta three times a week.

Many interesting incidents of these early days come to my mind. In the year 1853 there was disagreement in Marion County Agricultural Board, the West end of the County felt that they were not treated fairly so they decided to have a fair of their own at Scott Town. It was held in a grove in Scott Town and, as there were no buildings in which to house the displays, the many exhibits were displayed to the best advantage on trees and stumps, the quilts and fancy work being hung on branches. Every effort was made to out-do the regular County Fair at Marion, Ohio.

SAMUEL DAY

A pioneer of Marion County, writes on early times--The escape of Dr. Knight from a horrible death by Indians, in 1782 is recalled by finding a gun that figured in Knight's thrilling experiences.

The pioneer of this state are becoming fewer each year, and the link that connects the early days with the present will soon be lost. Our pioneers of Marion County are also becoming less each year and as time travels along, things that are related by them will become legendary to the community and coming generations.

Don't we always single out the pioneer and talk of the things and times gone by, this is not confined to the elder alone, but the young, as well, like to listen to tales of Indians life and pioneer trails. With-in our County, in the Big Island Township, lives one of our pioneers, Samuel Day, and it is a pleasure to converse with him on subjects pertaining to early times. This County has been always his home, and he has before him in memory the panorama of the wonderful development of a wooded wilderness to a productive land. We are confident our readers will pursue with interest the information, Mr. Day has to give of the early days in Marion, County. My father, Ovington Day, was one of the early pioneers of this county, having moved his family from Ross County, Ohio, in the Fall of 1823, settling in Big Island Township on the farm now owned by my brother Allen Day. The house into which we moved had been built in the year previous and is on what is known as the Old Indian trail from the Sandusky to the Mad River Country. The trail at that time was a noted Indian thoroughfare, popular to them perhaps because it ran near a never failing spring of most excellent water, situated close to where they crossed Tymochtee Creek, and in which was a badly rotted gum tree, which from its appearance had seemingly stood there for generations. The writer was at that time between four and five years of age, but can distinctly remember seeing them passing by, one behind the other when on their annual hunting excursions, as the trail lay within fifty feet of our door. They could be seen very

often in groups of a half dozen or more passing by. Our home was within five miles of the Scioto River, on either side of which was a dense forest of unbroken timber. In about the month of September they built their shanties and remained until the approach of cold weather, spending their time in killing deer, turkeys and other game, drying the meats, cutting bee trees, and digging and drying roots and herbs for the medicine man, who compounded them and dealt them out to his patients with as much pomposity as do some of our doctors who can hardly write an M.D. large enough when writing their names.

Prior to my coming here with my parents, about the year 1820 the pioneer who settled in Salt Rock Township from Clark and Champaign Counties, followed the same trail which crossed the Scioto about three miles east of La Rue at what was known as Markley's Ford, where Markley had erected a cabin shortly after the war 1812. This route was then called the Markley trail, but was afterwards called the Mechanicsburg trace. The pioneers before mentioned were Hugh V. Smith, David Smith, John and Edward Thompson, the Lapham brothers, Mahlon Marsh, Harrison and Pyton Kelley, who became prominent agriculturist of this county and left valuable estates to their many descendants. Only one man remains today in the Western part of the county who came here two years previous to my coming, who remembers the time and incidents of which I am writing.

Being a reader of the history of Crawford's campaign and defeat it might be interesting to some of you readers should I touch upon some of the incidents that happened at that time, and those who are familiar with the history of the same time Crawford was and when he was burned the Doctor was told that his fate was to be the same, but not then or here, but would be taken to the Shawnee towns, Wapatomacia or Macinchack, on the headwaters of the Mad River, east of where Bellefontaine now stands. Accordingly the next morning the Doctor and his Indian escort were started from an Indian town which is now called. Crawfordsville, seven or eight miles northwest of Upper Sandusky, and when night came the distance covered was judged by the doctor to be about twenty-five miles. When morning came and the Indians arose to build a fire the Doctor asked him to untie his hands that he might help build the fire, it was done, and as the Indian got down on his knees and elbows to blow the fire the Doctor picked up a piece of tent pole, which he said was burned to about eighteen inches in length and with all his might the Indian across the back of the head bringing him face down almost info the fire, but instantly springing to his feet went whooping and yelling and bounding away.

The Doctor picked up the Indian's gun and in haste cocked it broke the main spring, which allowed the Indian to make his escape. Knight then took the Indians gun, blanket and "hoppes" (haversack) and started almost directly east, and in his words he examined the broken lock, and finding the gun to be useless threw it to the ground and proceeded upon his journey home through unbroken wilderness. He reached the Ohio River on the 4th of July, twenty-eight days he had joined the ill-fated expedition of the lamented Crawford.

Now, having been a reader of history for the past sixty-five years and never having seen anything therein by which the spot upon which their fight could be located, which took place on that 13th day of June, 1782, I believe now that I have a clue which unravels the mystery and points out the spot, which undoubtedly is situated near the spring on Allen Day's farm, in section 6, Big Island Township, as the gun minus the stock so long ago thrown away by the Doctor has recently been plowed up by Mr. Melville Dodds and is now in his possession. In describing the same will say the barrel is thirty inches in length, the middle of which is smaller than either end, caused by rust, and is of the bell muzzle make. When in order it carried a half ounce ball. The lock is badly rusted and immovable, but shows by its superior workmanship that the maker was master of his trade.

The foregoing incident is described in Howe's History of Ohio and Butterfields History of Crawfords Campaign.

Samuel Day

MARION COUNTY BREVITIES

by Edna Button

The Meeker Methodist Church was organized in the spring of 1868 at a meeting held in the school house. John Sites (Seitz) presided, and attended were W. A. Butler, C. Postle, M. J.

Webb, J. H. Mason, S. S. Sprague, S. Pixley, W. R. Hatfield, H. Brown, E. Brown and Jane Gray. The official members were, W. A. Butler and J. H. Mason.

For about three years meetings were held in the school house and in 1871, a church was erected at a cost of $3,000. Size was 32 by 48 feet. Officials at the time were J. B. Virden, J. C. Clark and H. Mason. Board members were Willie Robertson, H. M. Virden and W. Davis.

In 1908 the building was rebuilt. There was an old reed organ. In 1948 it was remodeled and turned around. Ministers, Rev. John Parlet (68-69), Rev. O. Weaver (69-70), Mrs. Grace Parlett Seifert talked at the Dedication. Rev. D. B. Reinhard (70-71), Rev. B. Stacley (70-73), Rev. Hazen (73-74), Rev. E. H. Cammon (74-76), Rev. M. L. Seritees (76-77), Rev. T M. Burdall (77-78), Zion Church, Rev. J. William (78-80), Rev. P. T. Webster (80-83). They were assigned at Christian conference then changed to September conference. Rev. Elwood Perry came at the time as an lay preacher.

MEEKER REVIEW

By Senior Citizens

Not honey bees, but quilting bees, husking bees, apple paring, log rolling and house railings, etc., were jolly occasions a great deal of work was done.

APPLE BUTTER MAKING:

Day before or night before, neighbors got together, and had an apple peel, visit and had a good time, Next day some cooked apples in cider, some cooked on the stove and run them through then added to cider, Apple peelers were used some of the time some by hand. Brown sugar boiled down cider, good tasters, to decide when it was ready to take off, jars were ready at the range hot, sterilized, boards, papers, etc., laid on floor, was a ticklish job to fill the jars with that good old apple-butter then to let it cool. Took all day to cook a batch of bu cinnamon oil, other spices were used. The next day to can or seal jars, clean kettles until they shown. Clean up the rest of the litter. The taste of Good old home baked bread and apple butter was worth all the work that went in it. Seems to me people did not mind the work in those days, it went along with living.

SOAP MAKING:

It was an all day job also, lye water was used, ashes leached for soft soap, kettles were put over a fire, old grease, tallow, saved from frying, lye and water, cooked all day, rosin was used, when cool, it was cut in cakes put to dry, brown in color. Sure did the work in those days. The quick way was made with one can of lye to three pints of water and five pounds of lard or grease of any kind, stirring until mixed, a tablespoons of borax made it so white, poured into shallow pans let stand over night, cut into cakes, was always so white and nice.

THRASHING:

When wheat thrashing time came, every farmer for miles around would cut his wheat and stack it. Each man would take his turn then when it came time to thrash the grain each man had to put it on the wagon with a pitch fork and take it off the same way. They had thrashing rings. The one to see the thrasher first started the round. The women folks were the last to know some times, and had to about break their backs getting ready for the day. Churn, bake bread, pies, cakes, prepare beets cottage cheese, always a feast of goodies, they told that Fred Cookston was the first down to the table and always the last up, still ate with the women, he sure liked to eat.

The man who owned the outfit, would come sometimes and stay all night, he did nothing but run the machine, men from all around would come to help. Straw flew in stacks, after it was over we filled straw ticks with new straw, sweet smelling, to put back on our beds. A big feather tick on top. Women raised geese for pillow feathers, down used in pillows for gifts.

An nostalgic reminder of the Fast Disappearing Land Marks in our community, "The Depot"

woods, virgin soil, horses, and buggies, log cabins, homesteads, fortress of security to our way of life. Beyond high tension, speeding cars, robberies and murders. In those days people did not owe anything, they lived within their income, no relief or state aid, people got married worked in harness, and progress marches on. Spanglers and Roll Hickman had thrashing machines, and Tom Corey would stack-wheat in ricks.

WRITTEN BY MAEMIE O. CARPENTER December 1966

I remember Meeker when it wasn't Meeker at all,

But good old Scott Town to us all.

The Post Office C-ochranton by name

Was spelled C-O-C-H-R-A-N-T-O-N. Oh! Well.

It was hard to pronounce and hard to spell

Just when and why it was changed to Meeker, I can't really say.

But it seemed at times the mails become lost on the way

Sent by mistake to other towns spelled about the same.

So a change was needed in the name.

MEEKER was chosen for our Post Office and town

Named for a man Meeker perhaps of some renown.

But don't you all agree with me 'twas well

Because Meeker is easier to pronounce and easier to spell.

As you travel south from Meeker on your way

I just want to say that pike was built in the 1901

Connecting Meeker and New Bloomington.

Some of you will remember with me,

The tall stately willow tree,

That stood in the bend of the road

On a ridge near the bridge

It was a delight to see this willow tree

In the beginning it was a riding whip or a willow cane

Stuck in the ground to grow

Planted there years and years ago

By somebody, I didn't know.

In our thinking. let's more serious be,

We have a BEAUTIFUL, BEAUTIFUL church for all to see.

The doors open wide, inviting everyone to come inside,

To worship him our Lord our King.

The big red school house stands on the Northeast corner of our town.

It serves the children here and for miles around.

They come to learn from books, also the golden rule,

Here they get their start from the knowledge the teacher impart.

These few lines and in my small way,

I have told you a little of SCOTT TOWN then, MEEKER to-day.

BUTCHERING BY SENIOR CITIZENS

Charles McKelvey always helped Murphy's butcher, Sausage was mixed run into casings, which was the center of the entrails which had been scrapped, soaked in salt water, School teacher Earl Thomas always helped some and came for dinner on butchering day. When Mildred Anderson's butchered, Joe Kennel had water on long before day-light. Morris Virden, butchered when it was 17 below zero. Mildred and Vern Day helped stuff sausage, and Ann Day was so afraid they

would get it on the it on the table

Metz's still have butchering tools, knives, kettles, gamble sticks, sausage stuffer and lard press. Boards for scrapping casings. Joe Hastings and Roy Anderson cooked lard all day. Went home to do chores. Still cooked and it wasn't made.

Hope Chambers told of making Ponhause, sweet breads were always put in lard to cook for snack. They fried down side meat, pork chops, tender loins, sausage. Put hot lard over it to keep. Meat was hot salted in later years. The salt was put in kettle after the lard was poured off, and gotten real hot, a pair of new gloves were used to rub the warm meat with salt, meat was placed on slanted boards, in out buildings to drain and drip while the salt cured the meat. After so long it was scrapped, rubbed with borax and hot pepper, put in flout sacks, placed in a good dry place to be used at ones pleasure.

The day after butchering was a work day, getting sausage cut put in dripping pans in the oven to cook until all the juice was out. Then placed in hot cans with some of the hot grease. Sealed tight turned upside down to seal let cool. Some was coiled in stone jars, put in oven to cook, then set cool. It sealed its self in the jar. Clean head meat, ears pigs feet, tongue, all were put in head meat and souse, some smoked sausage, canned tender loins, spare ribs. The cracklings were used in different ways, some put them in pon House. Deep fry is the way now, but then they put them in corn meal, cornbread.

Hams and shoulders were put in brine, a sugar cure. These were the days of good tasting meat. Ruth Mattix said you can not buy sausage today that tasted like the old days. We agreed. Rev. Haley said they would help Mr. Spears butcher. Hogs were hung on trees, skinned then taken in meat house to be cut up. He liked the meal she cooked on old cook stove. Cooked fresh cool meat. Bill Metz said they saved everything but the squeal. Mary Thiabaut said they always had them hung before day-light. Edna Schmidt always made mince meat next day. Was a big. Some had neighbors to help. Al Rhoads always had goose berry pie for butchering day. Meat was smoked with hickory bark. Used salt brine for beef, dried beef was made with salt, hung up to dry.

REMEMBRANCES PICNIC'S

Maemie told of riding horse back with Aunt Sarah, on "Old Fly" to big hill. Rev. Haley told of a picnic he remembered where a little boy got over the fence and a bear came, and they had a time, to get the boy back.

Mrs. Haley told of a picnic where her piece of chicken scooted of her plate and slid across the room, and she was so embarrassed. Mildred Anderson remembers "Blows Grove, Sunday School, and Band Concerts and ice cream".

Lewis told how the boys would stir up the yellow-jackets nests, and Walter Layman remembers watermelon, floats.

Vern Hecker started to picnic with livery Rig, but the horse stopped and they never got to picnic, but turned the horse around, and he sure headed home with out further delay.

Marie said they drove a "Surrey with fringe on top" had a worn out race horse, "Old Bird", and he got in hornets, and Harry Metz had to drive him home, and he went around every horse on the road. Neva told of Blows Grove and Gas Grove at Prospect and S. S. picnics they rode on interurban and took boat rides.

Naomi told of picnic at Put-In Bay all got sea sick, could not enjoy dinner. Roy Peters lost his hat in Lake, one of the boys said, "If I had my boots I'd walk home. Ardena said one picnic she remembered was she got such a sun burn playing ball on the sand.

Dorothy Coon said they went on picnic and girls got bit by mosquitoes so bad, they named the place Skeeterville. Mae Coon picnicked in the rain, kept on eating until water was in everything.

Ann Buck told of Hilligan Picnic, her mother played piano and she was to give a special number, "My name is Morgan, but it Hain't J. T. ". Roy Anderson said they had picnic in grove at McKelveys, He had a poster on Farmers Grand Picnic, August 24, 1910, was big affair, Warren G. Harding was there.

MY EARLY MEMORIES OF SCOTT TOWN

By Marie Anderson

When I went to church and Sunday school with my sister, the church was heated by two big wood stoves and we had oil lamps and an organ, organist was Alma Thompson or Bessie Pfeiffer and later Fern Moon Lamb. We had two seats across the pulpit, we called the Amen corner. This was often occupied by Uncle Frank Wood, Enos Holmes and Joseph Pfeiffer Sr. Mr. James Hatfield or Mr. Brunner was our janitor. Abner Miller or George Davis was Sunday School Superintendent and later Herbie Davis, Carrie Mears or Dr. Burnsides.

We used to have lecture courses in the winter and had some very fine speakers. All came in horse and buggy days and all had coal oil lamps or lanterns and foot warmers.

Our membership then consisted of the Moons, Virdens, Dodds, Absalom Rhoads, McKelveys, Cookstons, Partridges, Hatfields, Metzs, Heiners, Cramners, Hopkins, Frames, Spragues, Webbs, Hostetters, Alexenders, Davis and Smiths. When we took communion it was served in a goblet and all took a sip from the same goblet, that was in the days of long beards and handle-bar mustache. Scott Town had board side walks and hitching racks. We had a barber shop ran by El Mason, with the help of George Kennedy. We had three grocery stores, Moon and Sons, at the edge of town. Elmer Kerr in the middle of town, South side. Every one baked their own bread and most all kept a cow and horse. We had two black-smith shops and the post office was Elmer Kerr's store, and Uncle George Bowers was postmaster. We had a Hotel and Livery barn, kept by Dan and Alice Cliff and later by Henry Baker, later by Alison Clements, then George Davis, Dr. Dan Cleffe was a veterinarian. The Spangler Brothers, was our thrashers, the sheaves were bound with string and a platform was on the back of the separator and it was the job of the big boys to cut bands they called it, engine was run by steam and it would take one man to feed the engine with wood.

Our school house sat behind the church and I would stand at the window and wonder if I ever would get big enough to go to school, and wear glasses. Every summer we would have a S. S. picnic and invite other S. S. around Big Island, Salem and they would come in wagons decorated with red, white, and band blue bunting. The horses would have flags in their bridles, and DeWillis Davis usually furnished the horses and saddle and bridle for James Hatfield who was

Marshal of the day, and would meet the visiting wagons at the gate and show them a place to unload. For our program in the afternoon each church would furnish some songs and declamations. We would even have an organ on the stage. There was no picture taking as a Kodak was not heard of then. The women all wore high top shoes and their dresses came to the top of their shoes. When ever a steam engine was going through our village they would blow the whistle at the edge of town and men would lead the horses back of grocery store and sometimes do the same if an auto drove through at 1 5 miles per hour. We had a neighborhood scale pen, farmers would drive their stock a long way, when they would sell them, to have them weighed. Uncle George Bowers was weigh master.

About 1909 several neighbors had a car load of flag stone shipped in and that was a great improvement. The present sidewalks on Main Street, are those flag stones. William Ducat ran a hack between Marion and Scott Town and he was so regular that people would set their clocks by him, that had run down. My Great Grandfather went into the grocery store one day and there lay a cat in the raisins sunning himself. That was long before the day of cellophane bags. The crackers came in barrels and we got 3 lbs. for a quarter. Lion and Arbuckles coffee sold for 15 cents per pound and every one ground their own.

In 1873 eggs were five-cents per dozen, butter, eight-cents per pound. Cattle and hogs were two-cents per pound, wheat 50 per bushel, Corn 8. My Aunt in Kansas said they had to haul their grain 40 miles to market and coal was four times more than corn, so they burned corn and twisted hay, along with cow chips.

In the Fall of 1896, McKinley was elected President and the wheels of industry began to turn. About that time Fords horseless carriages began to be seen more frequently and telephones were being installed in Scott-Town. At first we paid $1.00 per month, later it went to $1 5.90 then $18.00 per year. Our telephone was from LaRue but we had a switch board at Scott Town and central rang us by hand. Our phone hung on the wall and we had wet batteries that had to be stirred occasionally, most of us slept on feathers, and had rag rugs or carpets, made our own soap. We pieced quilts and sewed carpet rags in the winters, about this time King Brady's, Uncle George Baker gave him a phonograph and it was a big treat for us, for them to bring it to entertain or play it over the telephone, when we went to Marion we would lay our clothes out the night before and get an early start, our two seated surrey had a fringe around the top and we usually drove the farm horses. Ferris Day had a more up to date sorry with lamps on the side and nice bay team. He would be at most of the funerals and haul the family. My father would usually be one of the pall-bearers, and Auriel and Alice Moon would sing and Bessie Pfeiffer played the organ. Our funeral director was G.A.L. Marquith of LaRue and the minister would be Rev. Sutton, also of LaRue, Ohio.

Farmers would come into Scott Town the last of the week and sell their butter and eggs. They would carry oil cans as we burned coal oil lamps. All farmers did their own butchering and cured pork for the summer. We would bury apples and potatoes and cabbage for winter. So much was planted and harvested by the almanac with its signs. Cookstons, Uncle John Webb and ourselves and a few others would put up ice every winter with saw dust between and we would have ice cream most every Sunday afternoon. Otherwise, we would only have home-made ice cream when we went to festivals, Scott Town had a band also a band wagon.

MY TOWN

By Marie Anderson

Around the turn of the Century Uncle Amos Gray had his farm up for sale, a stranger came to the house and bargained for the farm, and they were about to close the deal, one morning they got up and he was gone, and never showed up again.

About 1907 work was begun on a new church, some of the carpenters were Gene Thompson, Mr. Hatfield and Sons. I think the church was dedicated on 1908. Around 1904 and later Scott Town had two Doctors, Dr. Mattix and Dr. Burnsides. In an earlier day, Dr. Briggs who left in 1913 and Dr. Virden took his place.

At Christmas time we would have a community tree at the, church, and Santa would come and give each a sack of candy an orange. About 1905 or 06, there came to Scott Town a man by the name of Meeker and formed a company to put through a interurban line, he had a large safe brought in and it was installed in Ell Masons barber shop and that was to be the ticket office. The name of Scott Town was changed at this time to Meeker. The deal fell through with and we had no interurban some may have lost money.

We walked to school, we had two rooms and some mighty fine teachers, we would go to school until we were fifteen or sixteen, or until we could pass the County examination. Some of the teachers would only be fifteen or sixteen. Some of us would go until we grew the seats. Some passed what was called the Boxwell examination on to high school.

Around 1906-07, Meeker was burglarized, two safes were blown, one was the Post Office, and on Monday morning my sister went to her school house, the Brown district and the burglar had stopped there and left papers from the post office safe. Well we all had a big time in our Old Town.

My mother was Flora Gray and my father, DeWillis Davis. I was the youngest of three children, born in Scott Town, September 18, 1893. That day, Dr. Curtis Briggs family, moved from Scott Town and the new Dr. John Virden officiated.

He was a man from our vicinity and stayed in town shout eight years after that, our doctor was Dr. Sheridan W. Mattix. Soon after Dr. Chas. Burnsides came and he married one of our local girls, Alma Thompson.

Scott Town had three grocery stores. Elmer Kerr, Alf Schultz and Tom Moon, a civil war veteran. We had several G. A. R. Men. One was William Kennedy, another John Alexander. One was Gene Thompson and Asa Cramner who was on the ship, "The Sultan", when it was torpedoed in Mississippi River and he was scalded so bad. Mr. William Thomas was another G. A. R. soldier. We had two blacksmith shops. One was Joseph Pfeiffer, the other, Sidney Sprague. We had a Hotel and Livery Stable and a nice barber shop with two chairs. I had a pleasant childhood and went up town most every day and notes back and forth. Milk was five-cents per quart. My mother's sister Jane Mason was crippled in her hips and seldom left home. Her home was a stopping place.

Our home was saddened in 1902 when grandmother Gray died of pneumonia. A little later my mother's health began to fail. Dr. called it bronchitis. She then went to a Marion doctor and he called it chronic bronchitis, she coughed and got weaker and weaker. In November of 1903 she went to Topeka, Kansas. In March of 1904 she came home and on June 28th, she took worse. It was her 44^th birthday. She passed away on July 1st., just as the sun went down. My brother was 21, my sister 18, and I was almost eleven. Every one was so kind to me. I went to church and Sunday school. I went to school one year to my sister. I always felt cheated about relatives. My mother had one sister, no children. My father, one sister, no children. So we three were the only grandchildren on either side. We never had a first cousin or an own uncle. Aunt Jane passed away in, October 1909.

The name of Scott Town and Cochranton post office was changed about 1908. My sister, Auriel was married to Earnest Wiley, November 25, 1909. I got acquainted with Lewis Anderson in May of 1912. He was born, May 8, 1892 to Chas. and Ellen Crabb Anderson. He was the 4th child and had one sister younger than him. We had a pleasant courtship of 1 years. Horse and buggy days and we did not travel far. We were married on my 20th birthday, the 18th of September, 1913. Lewis was 21. We went to housekeeping on the Anderson farm where our four children were born. Lewis sleeps in the same bedroom he was born in 79 years ago. All of them graduated at Meeker. All of them went to college. We have nine grandchildren. We love our Grange and Church and was active in both as long as health permitted.

My first school teacher is till living, age 92 in 1971. My last teacher is living at 87 years.

I live for those who love me,

For those who love me true.

I live for those who love,

And the good that I can do.

MEMORIES

MILLING:

Bread "The Staff of Life", was most difficult of all to get, as there were no mills in the county to

grind the grain. Stump Mortars and graters were used, it was a tedious task, by and by horse grist mills were put in use, then water grist mills, but all together these did not keep up with the demand, then flouring mills came along.

TRADE SYSTEM:

The Hillman's Ford Road played a part in trade, or path as it was called, the original path is not used, but a few pioneer's will remember it to mind. Business of all kinds was conducted on a small scale. Goods were sold at enormous prices, and credits were the rule, but little money enter into trade. The merchant bought cattle, horses, hogs, grain, furs, etc., and turned it into money. There was a Yankee merchant opened a place and cut down the old system, by selling for cash, at small profits, the old timers who had taken up the business without training were shocked, every effort was made to drive off the Yankee, but in vain, he was here to stay. Gradually the business of the county changed into better shape and farmers prospered, for they saved half of their expenses, merchants prospered for they ceased to lose their profits in bad debts. In place of stocks of goods amounting to $2,000. or $3,000. stock of $20,000. or more began to be common. At one time wheat was hauled to the Lakes, and the teams loaded back with goods. The long haul, covered wagons, frequently fifty in one line, loaded with grain for the Lake each with bed and lunch box, its camp fires and pleasant group of story telling, all has passed and is only know as tradition.

WOMEN'S WORK:

Besides cooking, the women had nanny duties to preform, one was yarn, spinning and weaving. The Big Wheel for spinning yarn and the little Wheel for spinning flax. Sheep was raised for wool, carded and made into rolls by hand cards, then spun on the big wheel. Fabrics were dyed with walnut bark, indic., copperas, etc. Checkered cloth was woven with portions of the yarns.

The passing of the old life, as the passing of any way of life, leaves behind its pathetic clutter of things under the eaves deep in the corners of attics, barns, needful things, once that so were treasured and used, have no use now, and to some of us no meaning, (only in the antique world) that we see today is it not a sad commentary, a true one, not curious, but understandable that the change of our former pattern and needs, how and when we grow things, how to process them, for a modern world affected only a few generations of man, who's lives and economy were bent or broken, to the change of time. They said to cut timber in January, if you wish it to last long, it being the best time of year. Most true, in January. No sap runs in the tree and timber cut now is partly seasoned before it goes to the saw. But whether January or July, the timber of the old timer who cut to build his home was first growth, and would become harder and harder with age. There was an heritage in the old house, its meaning to a pioneer every thing in it would be his timber, his beams, and boards, his labor and skills (rough though it was) to hew and fashion and make a home that would stand forever on his land for his children and their generations after them.

AN EVENT IN THE HISTORY OF THE ANDERSON FAMILY

Thomas J. Anderson and his wife, Florence Gillespie. Today Blanch is 90 years old, still living, Harry still living. It was early in October or early in November in the year 1891, that Dad and Mother and we three youngsters started on our first trip to California. Blanch was eleven years, and Harry and I, were eight years, and Walter, five years. Also included with us was Grandmother Gillespie, Mother's mother. Mrs. Belle and a cousin and Joe Sorden, a young man who helped father on the farm; his father was a civil war veteran. They lived not too far from our farm.

We traveled on the Santa Fe R. R. It was supposed after we arrived in St. Louis that the hold-up gang boarded the train. The train was stopped in a densely wooded area, about eight miles from St. Louis. Two of the gang had climbed into the engine and ordered the engineer to cut loose from the train; they robbed the engineer and fireman of their possessions. There were seven people in the hold-up gang, six men and one woman.

They robbed the train expecting to get a large shipment of money that was supposed to be on the train. As it turned out they only got about $15,000. The big shipment was not on train. There was only one person hurt, and that was the express messenger. He refused to unload or unlock the express car door. The gangsters then blew the car door open with dynamite. The lock blew off and hurt the messenger, bitting him on the hip. They asked him to give them the keys to the safe, he refused, and then threw the keys out of the door and consequently they blew the safe open. They made no effort to molest the passengers, but men two of them entered the smoker and ordered everyone to lie down. Then they went out and started to shoot the windows out. The car had to be taken off the train at St. Louis.

Had they started in the car where I was, I am sure some one would have been hurt, for we carried our money with us. When the shooting started a trainman came into our car and turned the lights low so as not to cause a shadow, then he locked the doors at both ends of the car.

Dad was quite a hunter, and before we started on our trip he borrowed Uncle Charlie's ten gauge shotgun. He loaded quite a number of shells with buck shot, thought he might see' wild same on our way. When the trainman saw the gun strapped to our grip, he asked who owned the gun and Dad told him that he owned it, He said, "Get it out and let no one come through that door", Dad dropped down on one knee, in the aisle, about midway on the car, and a man who said he was a professor at a Kansas school, said that he had been through other robberies, stood beside Dad with his hands full of shells and said, "When I say shoot, let them have it", It nearly happened that way too. After the shooting stopped a conductor unlocked the door and started in, he would have been shot had not the man, that stood beside Dad, knocked the gun up-and said, "Don't shoot, that is the conductor".

The rear door of our car was guarded by three men with revolvers even with all the excitement there was a little funny event, the little colored boy in our car was so scared that he jumped off and ran, he wasn't on the train when it started. Maybe he is still running. One of our party, Joe Serden, forgot that he had a revolver in his pocket. The rest of the trip was uneventful and we arrived in Los Angeles in time for Thanksgiving at the home of Mother's sister and husband, Uncle Walter James. We learned that the bandits were all caught in San Francisco about six weeks later. The leader's name was a man called Slye.

CHILDHOOD MEMORIES OF DWIGHT HECKATHORN

My grandmother, Mary Rubins Heckathorn was born in Lincolnshire, England, on January 19, 1822. There were eight or nine children in the family. Her mother was Ann Blow Rubins and her father was Edward Rubins. They migrated to this country in 1831 end settled near Plymouth, Huron County. Later they came to Marion, County, near the Junction of what is now Ohio 37 and U. S. 30 South.

Mary married Daniel Heckathorn in 1840. (Helen Rubins married Ira Anderson, and they came to what is now Wyandot Co. near Marseilles where they moved their home until Daniel passed away in 1893. To this union was born six children. My father Jonathon Chalminers was born March 6, 1860, and was the youngest in the family. Just as he was always called, married Isabel Young in 1889. To this union was born five children. I was the middle one and was born in 1895.

Our home is the same place where grandfather came when married. After grandfather passed away, grandmother live around with the children and spent about five months in the summertime at our house. As early as I can remember grandma took the job of dressing me in the morning and what a time when I got out of bed I could disrobe of most of my nightclothes and get some morning exercise. Grandma was not very active on her feet so all I had to do was stay out of her reach. She would scold and say you ought to be ashamed, a big boy like you running around here with no clothes on, but that did not bother me in the least, and it went until she would say "If you will get on my lap I will tell you about coming across the ocean in a sail boat". That always done the trick of catching me, I heard that story many, many, times. She told of their Lincolnshire home and how and where she and her family decided to come to America.

They did not have much of this world's goods, but were very closely drawn to what they did have. She would tell of packing the trunk that held what they did have, The first thing she did mention was the Linen English linen, good linen, and valued highly by her mother..Then the China ware and some rugs, and they had a few things they had to sell, and so had a few, or small amount of Gold.

One thing she told of selling was the white horse, Fan. All felt bad to leave Fan but Grandma said they just could not get her in the trunk. Grandpa Rubins had come to America some time ahead of them. She said they were 49 days on t boat coming over.

I did not know much about time then, but some time later l asked her why it took so long and she explained that it was a long way across the ocean, about 3,000 miles and then I asked why they didn't hurry and she said they hurried all the say. It seemed to me that 49 days would be a long time to sit still and wonder what they would sit on, then she told me Very earnestly that their mother looked after the children and the trunks and never left the trunks unless she set 3 or 4 children on them, because the trunk held all they would have then they got to America. One little boy died and was hurried at sea.

All this was a nice fairy tale to a boy 3 or 4 years old, and remained so until I began to learn in school that the ocean was big and England on the other side of it, but it seemed to far away to worry about, time passed and in 1854 an opportunity came for me to go to England, there were 12 men in the group and we left New York, August 15, and arrived in Scotland about ll hours later. Some difference than Grandma's trip coming over. The difference was we went by plane. We visited 10 countries in Europe and arrived home September 15, did this in just a few days over half the time that it took them to travel one way. In 1960 Ruby and I were in the group of men and women who went to Switzerland and time from New York, to London was less than 5 hours. I am still confused about time and traveling so will close, this right here, Grandma passed away, February ll, 1913 age 91 Years, 23 days.

MEMORIES

By Neva Rhoads

Leah Anne Rhoads went- to High School in Marion, After they left Salt Rock Township. She did not graduate but taught school in a frame building across from Milton Rhoads farm. She taught one year and Eliza Davidson was a pupil. (Eliza married David Morral.) Annie rode a horse out on Monday morning and went back to Marion on Friday night. She boarded with her brother Milton H. Rhoads. Eliza lived with her sister, Jane D. Rhoads.

Joseph Pfeiffer Senior always came to the Milton Rhoads home in the fall and made 10 gallons of kraut for them. Best I ever Tasted.

Ruth Wyatt born in 1807 was the first white child born in Marion county.

William Brundige born in 1808 was the first male child in Marion, County.

The first deed was recorded in Marion, County, March 9, 1821, in Big Island from Samuel and Lydia Jones to William Foster.

OLD NAME

Marseilles .....................................................Burlington

Caledonia ......................................................Van Buskirk

Green Camp ..................................................Berwick

Martel ...........................................................Three Locusts

Prospect ........................................................Middle Town

Claridon .......................................................Wheaton

Agosta ..........................................................Carey Station (Si Plunk, was a New Bloomington - nickname

July 1967:

Setting far back off the busy highway in Marion, County, west of Marion, Ohio, is a large white house which has been home for five generations of the Rhoads Family in the last century. Although the house has been modernized and passing of time has made it necessary to replace some of the building on the premises, the historical background still remains.

The Rhoads Homestead was conveyed by patent to Bethnel Virden by the United States of America in 1820. This transaction does not appear of record in Marion County, but was obtained from Washington D. C. The farm was given by will to Mr. Virden's wife, Betsy, and their two daughters et the time of his death on July 20, 1852. It was sold to Amos F. Lapham, February 27, 1866, and he in turn sold the farm to Michael Metz, on October 2, 1866. The property and land was purchased by George Rhoads, March ll, 1868, and was deeded to James Rhoads, March 25, 1875, and has been in the Rhoads Family since that time. On June 16, 1944, Harold and George Rhoads acquired this farm through purchase and sold it to Raymond and Mabel Cates Rhoads in the Spring of 1948, who are the present owners. They are the parents of five children; Myron L., Alan B., Glen R., Hal L. and Holly Sue. Thus we trust that this interesting landmark will remain in the Rhoads family many more years.

It was learned that the house was built around 1820 and had five fireplaces; three on the first floor and two on the second floor. Also, there was a grange hall and grocery store on the second floor. (It is understood that Mrs. Mary DeLong would ride a mule one and one-half miles to this grocery if only for a bag of brown sugar). The house was built facing an Indian Trail leading from Little Sandusky to Marysville. Mrs. Lovira Rhoads said she would often look out of a window and see an Indian looking in. The Delaware, Wyandot and Shawnee Indians were most prominent in this part of the country.

It is a study built house with barn sills under the floor and another sill in the attic close to the roof. The attic sill has been hollowed out by hand to form a trough which extends from one end of the house to the other end. The electrician said when wiring the house for electricity that he thought the trough was at one time used to shed water and the roof had been a thatch roof.

While the men were busy cutting wood and logs for the fireplaces, the spinning wheel was kept going inside. Mrs. Rhoads made all of their clothes, which included the Men's suits and coats and their daughter's clothes as well. The boots and shoes were very heavy and some of them were made by hand and often had copper toes.

A very interesting building on the farm was the log milk house. The logs were so large and thick that it was always cool inside even on the hottest days in summer. The floor was stone. A long through into 'which cold water was pumped twice daily served to refrigerate the milk, cream and butter. Many pounds of butter were churned and molded by two busy hands and delivered to steady customers in Marion, Ohio. The roof extended a few feet beyond the milk house. A gourd was hung on a spike nail outside on the wall by the door but it was replaced later by a tin cup. A pump was near by and when the crops were being harvested, the old tin cup was very much in demand. although, through the thoughtfulness of Mrs. Rhoads, iced tea or lemonade was ready for the men to drink, many of them would rather have a cold drink from the well. The day the old milk house was torn down it seemed as though some of the homestead went with it.

I should like very much to pay tribute to the person with the busy hands. She was a wonderful wife, mother, mother-in-law, grandmother and a friend to all who knew her. She was always ready and willing to help others who needed it, many times when it was an inconvenience to her. I am speaking of Mrs. Almeda (Allie) Rhoads.

Neva and Harold Rhoads

AN ARTICLE OF AGREEMENT

An Article of Agreement Between, Asa Harkness and George Rhoads for building a house; front part being 18 by 34 feet, 1 stories high, four rooms in front, four windows in the west end, two in the east end. In the north, the chamber to be partitioned into two rooms, the west room four feet to be cut off the north side and that to be divided in the middle-the east room to have closed panels, north side of chimney stair-case, south of chimney with door to accommodate the room. Kitchen south of east room one story-twenty foot square to be taken to the south side for buttery and sink room with widow and door to accommodate each room, with cupboard in the kitchen and one in the east room of front. A. Harkness to get out the rough timber and sleerers and make the shingles and do all the carpenter and joiner work, also do all lathe the said house, said work to be done plain workman like manner. Porch on the east end of house and kitchen. G. Rhoads is to board, do the hauling and furnish suitable materials such as lumber, nails and glass and so forth. G. Rhoads is to pay Asa Harkness two hundred and fifty dollars, $75.00 (seventy-five dollars) first of July, $75.00 (seventy-five dollars) by the first of November, one-hundred to be paid one year from the finishing of job. Said job to be completed by the first of January 1854. A. Harkness is to have house truck patch free for one year.

A. Harkness

G. Rhoads

Article

Signed and Sealed in the presence of:

(April 6th, 1853)

Witness:

Frall Cramner

Michael Graham

George Rhoads (seal)

Asa Harkness (seal)

MEMORIES

By Maemie Carpenter

Maemie Metz Carpenter, was born on June 4, 1889. Parents David and Emma McClellan Metz. She married Robert D. Carpenter on May 21, 1911. Two sons are, Paul V. and Damon M. Carpenter.

Lets turn the pages of time back to fifty six years ago; I was a teacher at DeCliff, Ohio. My cousin, Guy Miller was principal, my mode of travel to and from school was horse and buggy. My horse was cared for by a kind gentleman, named June Ashbaugh. Sometimes I walked, remember one nippy morning as I was coming near the Clements farm home west of here, an automobile caught up with me, the driver asked me to ride, the car was a touring car, no side curtains, no front door. He whisked me into town at the alarming speed of 75 miles an hour, needless to say I was almost frozen or it seemed.

Fifty-six years ago, DeCliff could boast of having a church, school, three general stores, an elevator, depot, telegraph station, and I associated with Pace and Wilson for this work. Pace was Helen Schreck's father. I regret I have no record of my pupils names here, only my memory.

School Days, School Days,

Good Old Golden Rule Days,

You I Recall,

They were about the best of them all.

I taught my first team of school at DeCliff, the one room building is now Montgomery Grange Hall. We hold the annual reunion of former teachers, pupils and friends of the Church and Sunday School. Here are a few names of those I taught:

Guy Roux Vernon Sooghen

Verle Roux Lucille Sooghen

Helen Tron Eugene Sooghen

Victor Tron Thelma Landon

Charles White Opal James

Betty White Flora LaRue

Herman Postle George Miller

Lora Sprague Fern Ullmer

Leonard Pace Ruby Pace

The thought for the day'

Let me grow lovely growing old.

So many nice things to do,

Like old lace, old trees, silver and gold,

So why not I as well as these.

Maemie Carpenter

The Henry Rhoads family is one of the oldest in Marion County.

HENRY RHOADS, great, great, Grandfather of Mildred Murphy to the county in 1825 and purchased 240 acres of land from the government. He was a native of Pickaway County and married Elizabeth Crabb from Ross County. There were six Children.

He died at the age of 49 leaving about 400 acres of land, .. Milton Henry Rhoads, a son was born September 24, 1840. He was 14 when his father died and he took over the farming.

October 7, 1861, he enlisted in Co. D. 64th Ohio Infantry, was promoted to Corporal. Due to ill

health he was discharge in the summer of 1862. On September, 1862, he married Jane Dean Davidson. She was born on May 8, 1840. Her parents were James and Ann Dalzell Davidson, natives of Clark County and Ireland respectively. They went to live on his grandfather old homestead where he lived the rest of his life. In 1877 Mr. Rhoads and son built a new home. The finest in the township at that time. It burned down on February 21, 1913.

James Henry Rhoads, an only child was born June 25, 1863. Hr married Ida L. Peters, August 27, 1890. She was a native of Wyandot Co. Both Milton H. and son Henry, belonged to Marion Lodge No. 58 IOOF. Also were members of Masonic Lodge of LaRue, Ohio.

James Henry and Ida Peters Rhoads had one daughter, Mildred Marie, born December 8, 1895. She married Oscar Murphy, a native Pulaski County, Indiana, December 24, 1919. They lived on the Rhoads homestead, having built a new home there in 1920. There are four children, Howard E., Beulah Mae, Carl E. and Lowell T. Murphy. The Murphy's are members of Meeker M. E. Church. Oscar belongs to the Aberdeen Angus Assoc. Mildred belong to W.S.C.S. and also to Salt Rock Joy Maker's Club. They have 13 grandchildren.

The Murphy Family.

OSCAR MURPHY, was born in Pulaski County, Indiana, January 15, 1898. A son of Thomas Marion and Frances E. Lucas Murphy. They moved to Paulding County, when he was 7 years old. Later coming to Marion County in 1913. (Salt Rock Township)

He married Mildred M. Rhoads, December 24, 1919, There a four children:

Howard E. married Loretta Adams

Beulah Mae married Donald S. Williams

Carl E. at home

Lowell Thomas married Jackie Constable

There are 13 grand children.

NELLIE MAE SECOY GAMBLE

On a farm near Pleasanton, in Athens County, Ohio, Nellie Mae Secoy was born April 4, 1889. Her mother was Sarah Ann Woodruff and her father, Jasper Secoy, was a leader of the church. There were five girls and four boys in the family. Only one brother is living now, in Seattle, Washington. When three years old the family moved to the city of Athens, near the State Hospital. Two years later they went to Marion, Ohio, living in the first house off Center Street on Prairie Street, which later was renamed Blaine Avenue. At that time this Street only went as far as Church Street. Her father bought a house on the West side of David Street a block away from Center, which was the only house on that side of the street. Across were three houses and a one-room frame schoolhouse, where she attended two years. There was an orchard where the Steam Shovel is now on David Street. The Steam Shovel occupied the north side of Center at that time. A brick school house was built across the street from the one-frame one, where Nellie attended the third and fourth grades. Then she went to Silver School, but her mother was afraid for her to cross the railroad tracks, so she changed to Central Building, which had the twelve grades at that time, later because Central Junior High, and now is the new trading center (1945). She finished Eight grades.

During the first year living on David Street her father died, at the age of 59, when Nellie was seven years old. He was a Civil War Veteran, her mother lived years later. Nellie can remember when the lamplighters climbed up ladders to light the street lamps and put them out in the mornings.

She obtained a job at the Silk Mill, later worked as a clerk at Uhlers and Phillips, were Woolworth is now, which was formally a post-office. Then worked at Klines Department Store, and the last job was with Banning and Jacobs, a 5 and 10, where the $1.00 Store on the south side is now.

On September 26, 1906, she and Ernest Gamble went in a cab to Rev. Rowley's house, minister of the Wesley M. E. Church, which was on the corner of Center and Olney, and were married. He was a machinist at the Steam Shovel. They lived on Avondale, a couple other places and then on Latourette St. where Ralph was born on January 18, l Dog. They bought a house on corner of Bennett and Uncapher, where Thelma was born June 27, 1911. They traded houses for one on Fies, and Madolyn was born, February 23, 1914. They always wanted to be in the country, so traded in 1916 for a farm north of Meeker, which is now the Higgins Place. They moved by a horse van and got stuck, She and the children came by train to DeCliff were Charlie Mounts met them. Isabel was born, August 24, 1918. In 1920 they moved to Meeker where the Francis William Beauty Parlor is. Jack was born here, April 24, 1921. The next year they went in the Brannum house, Mr. Gamble had a garage where Arthur Oldham's shop is. Donald was born, March 29, 1924, and Ramona on November 19, 1928. In 1929 they moved to Fostoria where he was an inspector in a machine shop and Ralph who was married in 1929, was an electrical engineer. They moved to the farm again where Prettyman's live when the depression hit and found him without a job. Unknown sickness attacked Mr. Gamble, so on January 2, 1932 they took him to University Hospital for observation, on February 16, 1932 they were operating on him when he died on the operating table. In March, 1932, Nellie bought where Homer Rhoads lives, poor land caused them to sell, then they moved to Marion, on David near Bellefontaine. They remained here until 1945. Later on she helped to make a home with Ernest Wiley and was there until his death. She is a very active member of Senior Citizens.

LOCAL FAMILY VISIT HOME OF EARLY ANCESTORS

Mr. and Mrs. Gordo Chambers and Irving Corey spent the weekend in Cleveland visiting their sister, Mrs. Joy Landgrabe. While there they made a visit to a family historical home, Shandy Hall in Unionville. This quaint structure was one of the first homes in the Western Reserve Territory, built in 1815 by Robert Harper. It was continuously occupied by successive generations of the Harper family for 128 years. The home, contained 15 rooms is now a museum, maintained by the West Reserve Historical Society of Cleveland, Ohio.

From The Plain Dealer Home Magazine - September 5, 1970

WHEN DO IT YOURSELF WAS A WAY OF LIFE

The work of human hands is what Labor Day is all about. Workmen in the United States and their tools have created the mightiest industrial nation on the face of the earth. Shandy Hall, is a vast and wonderful repository of tools of the 19th century. From kitchen tools to spinning wheels and yarn winders used in making cloth by the Harper Women.

All about the basement level are tools that were used in running a farm. From these tools one can conclude that a great deal of the work in the 19th century was done by the women, whose liberation came with improved tools that were used in their unending household chores.

Farming was not the sole occupation of Col. Robert Harper. He was known to have operated the earliest mail rout from Buffalo to Cleveland. He studied and practiced Law: he served as a Colonel in the War of 1812, and as an Ohio State Representative and Senator.

But there are plenty of farm tools that show Col. Harper and later inhabitants of Shandy Hall did a lot of farming. The banquet hall made it possible for the Harper's to entertain. For a farm home it was a very large room. Measuring 16 by 32 feet with a coved ceiling. Apparently he had broad business interests for the picturesque French wallpaper in the banquet hall was acquired through an unsuccessful business venture in 1820. The wallpaper was ordered from France for a hotel in Buffalo that was never built. As one of the investors, Col. Harper acquired the scenic paper, a rarity in a frontier settlement. This museum contains a complete furnishing of the Harper family, furniture, dishes and rugs, clothing, toys, jewelry, letters, diaries portraits and books. It contain many treasurers in the antique world including the high chair and cradle made for the first Harper baby born there: the old cheese press, iron cooking utensils, etc. Many who visit say it is the most unusual museum in the country. Another interesting feature of the house was the silver knocker on the large front door and the arrangement of the wood panels in the bottom half to form an open bible. They told that this method was used at this time to designate the home of Christian families.

Hope Chambers told of her Great Aunt and Uncle Jim and Hanna Harper who came from New York State, had thirteen children, raised sheep gave each child a farm when they married, Hanna could shear sheep as good as her husband.

LEROY AND MILDRED ANDERSON

Mildred Day was born on a farm one mile west of Scott Town on the Marion and Kenton Pike, now Route 30's. Her father Marilla Gillette and Mother Theodoshia Burt Day. She was brought up with adults a grandfather and an Aunt Easter Day shared the home. She loved to play and made pets of a lamb, cat and dog. She would walk to school with her cousins, Charles and Carrie Mears. She loved to ride horse back, her first teacher was Minnie Hill. She attended church at Scott Town and sometimes went to union Presbyterian church two miles east of Scott Town. She was always a good scholar. When she was thirteen the family moved to a larger farm two and one half miles west on Dry Lane Road. About this time her folks built a new house, there she attended the country school and began teaching when she was sixteen years old. All went well until the fall of 1909 when her father died suddenly she kept on teaching until she was married Feb. 2, 1910.

LeRoy Anderson was born on a farm in Grand Township the oldest of five children to Ellen Crabb and Chas. Anderson. He walked to school at Spring Hill, his first teacher was Richard Jones of LaRue, Ohio. He liked Sports but most of all he enjoyed reading. He attended school one year at Marseilles, then taught a county school the year of 1905 and 06, He walked past the Day farm night and morning. Later one summer he attended a festival and took special interest in the waitress Mildred Day, they had an enjoyable summer until Mildred's father died suddenly in October. On February 2, 1910 they were married in Marseilles by Rev. Ferguson, a presbyterian minister, and he took over the farming. They attended church at DeCliff. Roy was Sunday School Superintendent and Mildred taught children classes for a number of years, these were busy happy years.

They were both always ready to help in sickness and death in the community. One event that came each year or fall was the farmers picnic, held in Blows Grove, four miles west of Meeker. Mildred would fix a clothes basket of fine food, that was before we had cakes mixes, dressed chickens and creamery butter. It meant real work to feed about twenty members of Baker's Band, who furnished the music. One treat was the sweet corn roasted in a pit with husks on. Roy and Mildred took the work of the Subordinate Grange at Tymochtee #2249 in 1919, were faithful members until the Montgomery Grange #2336 was organized in 1921, later Mildred was elected to the office of Chaplin in the State Grange and they toured the State for two weeks putting on the sixth degree. Mildred was Sec. of Montgomery Grange for twenty-five years. An excellent record. Roy filled most of the chairs, he has taught Sunday School Class in different churches for over sixty-five years. They are now spending the sunset years of their lives helping in the community. Members of the Meeker Senior Citizens Group, enjoying their many friends.

MEMORIES

Mary Burdge Parker Thibaut was born September 11, 1885, to Betsy Veasy and Marshal S. Burdge in Montgomery Township, Marion, County, Ohio. I had six sisters, Fannie Allen, Nettie Shirk, Ann Cahill, Laura McIntire Virden, Sallie Stoner and Daisy Yeaugers. The sisters are all deceased but Daisy. Two Brothers are also deceased, James and Roy Burdge. My mother passed away when I was 2~ years old and I grew up in my mothers sister's home--Lydia Veasy Bent Simons. She lived north of LaRue, Ohio.

On May l, 1907, I was married to John Parker who passed away February 28, 1914. I live on the same farm John and I went to housekeeping on 64 years ago.

August 31, 1916, I married Henry Thibaut who passed away October 11, 1962. I had four step daughters- Edna Thibaut Jennings and Iva Thibaut both deceased. Core Thibaut Dutt of Pleasant Township and Edith Thibaut Crall of Detroit, Michigan and Clearwater Florida. I am a charter member of Montgomery Grange No. 2336 for 50 years. A member of the Marion County Pomona Grange, and State and National Granges. A member of the Meeker Methodist Church and the Meeker Senior Citizens.

MEMORIES

Grace Mae Schaher was born 1 miles Northeast of New Bloomington, Ohio, on the Seiter

Pike; to Mary Schlecht and David Schaber on June 7, 1904. I have one sister Clara E. Long--one niece, Mary Laura Long Scott and one Great niece, Patricia Scott and two Great nephews, John and James Scott.

I attended New Bloomington school and graduated in 1922 and from Marion Business College in 1923. I worked in Marion for ten years at Marion Power Shovel Company, and for Sam Romoser-Tinner and etc.

The Depression came after the Death of my Father and our home burned, my Mother and I bought the Elmer Randolph place in DeCliff, Ohio. My Mother passed away in 1950. Later I worked for Gertie Rush for eight years, and for the past 11 years for Mary Thibauts.

I am a member of the New Bloomington Methodist Church and the Meeker Senior Citizens.

WILLIAM AND KATHRYN METZ

William was born on the Metz home place in 1892, to Emma and Dave Metz one of seven children. He loved to help his dad on the farm, played ball, taught school before he was of age to teach, later taught school for seven years, around Meeker, Ohio. Went to Marion, Ohio, learned barber trade, and his own shop several years, in Marion, Ohio, and Green Camp, Ohio, Kathryn Cleveland was born at the Tom Hoyles Tile yard west of Marion, Ohio, to Ella and Hillie Cleveland in 1900, one of nine children. She worked for the Hocking Valley Railroad as clerk, later at the General Telephone Company at Marion. They have one son Jack, born in 1922, his first teacher was Ester Gracely, he started to school in Green Camp, Ohio. At present is Senior Research Engineer for Teletype Company of Stoky, Ill. William and Kathryn had a Beauty Shop and Variety Store at Oakland Heights in Marion, Ohio. Marcelling was the vogue at the time, facials, manicuring, and all the ladies apparel. In 1927 they moved to Green Camp, Ohio, opened a barber shop and beauty parlor. Lovely friends and fond memories we have of our stay there.

How far back does this take you? The coal oil lamps, I recall we used to set through twilight charms till the family gathered tight with-in its golden pool of light, shadows and cares of the day, were pushed aside, held at bay by our old lamps protective gleam, allowing us to read or dream. I see my Mother mending, my father, too, spinning yarn's to make us grin, or singing "Old Dan Tucker" or "After The Ball", until we fell asleep. Electric lights are better, true, with-out them I would hate to do, beneath that lamp our youthful dreams were born and blended in its beams, tender trusting, happy care free youth, filled with all the wonders of the age, content to hold our parents in awe, as the most special people on earth.

I remember when they wore black stockings (history repeats its self) they do now, and high button shoes. I loved thrashing time, I would stand on a chair and mix Mother's bread, first mix, she made pot-pies of wild game, father liked to hunt, would go up into Maine, hunt deer and bear. I remember pack peddlers that came out of Marion, Ohio. Going west on Rt. 30, stop at tile yard, what an assortment they had. Mother would buy waist fronts all embroidered, safety pins, buttons gosh I used to stand close to Mom, but loved to see all he had in his case. I loved the bob-sleds on our way to school. I spoke a piece "Tommy's Prayer" at school, I still can.

What a wonderful childhood we had at the tile yards, father was so strict, we had to stay with-in the yard during

the week, but let him go to town on Saturday, and we would get out where Charlie Hart (our old friend) was, and he let us cut off tile 16", 18", was a thrill to cut it when Charles said, "cut". That was a good stopping place for the Gypsy's, the next road was Gypsy Lane. I knew Mother to ride to Marion, Ohio, with Billie Ducat, I remember the taffy pulls at school. I remember my first show, was at the State Theater, a stage show, Two men in tall hats and canes, sang "Following My Foot-Steps Through The Snow", I felt so sophisticated at ten years old.

Now we are Senior Citizens, I love my work in the Meeker United Methodist Church, enjoy all my friends, neighbors, seems life has just begun. God has blesses us, for which we are thankful.

Meeker, Scott Town

MY BASEBALL CAREER

by Bill Metz

I learned to catch, throw and bat a ball when quite young, at school, all my school-mates played what we called one old cat; later I played with boys in and around Scott Town. We got to be quite proficient at the art.

My Dad and I went to see a game played by Scott Town just north of Ed Masons and DeWillis Davis woods. This was the first real game of baseball I ever witnessed, and I do know that Scott Town won. I do not know all the players, but Rice Moberly pitched, Marion (Basco eat them alive) McIntire caught, Emmit Metz, Carl Williams and Carl McKelvey played the outfield, Charlie Sprague second base, I do not know who played first, third or short stop.

About a year after this game. I was talked into playing a game at Scott-Town by Alga Spangler, so you might say he is the culprit. that got me to playing baseball. Alga's team was to play an out of town team, and was short an outfielder, asked me to play. Well, I was just dying to play but I refused for some time, because as I told him all the others were a lot older. I was just a little afraid I in fact was scared to death. But I finally agreed, telling Alga I would have to go home and change. He said no, you can put on a pair of my overalls, and he got them. We went into Mr. Hoffmans barn (Fergusons now) and I changed into Alga's garb. Now, remember I was only 15 or 16 years old and Alga was a grown man and besides he was so long, lean and lanky they called him Gimblet, well that shirt was not too bad. The sleeves a trifle long, but those overalls, I knew they were at least three times longer than mine, and his waist about the same. Well, I shook myself into those long legged things as fa I could. And then some and there was about 18 inches below my feet. Alga had the solution, roll up the pant legs. We did, to keep them up we used safety pins and pinned them up. Then we went to the ball diamond. (I must of looked a sight I was hoping against hope that the other team would not show. We practiced quite a bit, playing catch and Carl Williams batted flies to the outfit. I was to play left field, Carl hit a ball almost straight up, high in the air and it came down just out of the infield back of 3rd base. I run all way the from left field and caught the ball, there was a man probably 25 or 30 years old watching us practice, a stranger, he said, "who is that young man", What a catch. The Cleveland lands Indians would sign him if they had seen that play. His name some said was Briggs they called him "Cy". I guess he

was Zelda Briggs brother.

I was in and played ball several years after, each spring. I was the one to get the boys to form a team for the summer I pestered the men of the community to donate a few pennies pickles and dimes or what have you, to get a little money to buy baseballs. A catchers mask. A breast plate or what ever else we would need. The players bought their own gloves and uniforms and bats. Our umpires were, James Hatfield, June Sprague and at times Alga Spangler. They performed their duties fair and square for both sides. Morral was our mortal enemy as far as baseball was concerned. As I stated Morral was one of our greatest competitors and I must admit they had a ball club equal to our own. We played teams from Marion, Morral, The Wyandot Indians, Brown Town, Caledonia, Galion, and Ashley, etc.

Many contests were held. First one on top, then the other, we are all well matched. Usually the team that lost today would probably win tomorrow.

MARION TRIBUNE:

News Paper Article by Fritz Nothacker:

TRIO PLAYED IN BAKER'S BAND IN EARLY 1900'S

REMEMBERING OLD "UM-PAH "DAY'':

The last three survivors of Baker's Band--the pride of Marion from the early 1900's to World War I--got together the other day to talk about old times. It's been more than half a century since the band in white trousers and blue coats marched past the crowds at Main and Center Streets. and

played on the pavilion at the old Marion Chautauqua. Old post card pictures of Baker's Band in down town parades now are collectors' items showing an era and scenes in Marion History that long since have disappeared.

BUT MEMORIES of the "good old days" when the band packed people into the Grand Opera House and played at the Farmer's Picnic came tenderly flooding back on the front porch at 169 Johns Street.

Like the River City, Iowa, Band out of Meredith Wilson's "Music Man" one could have sworn from the conversation that he saw old Baker's Band marching from the sunlight into the shadows.

There on the front porch Dr. E. K. Clark, 88, of 189 Pearl Street, and his brother Dr. F. W. Clark, 82, of Salina, Kansas stopped to visit with Louis Allen, 96. Two bass players and an alto horn player who also blew the clarinet, they are the last three survivors of the band which the old Marion Tribune of 1917 called "one of the finest in the state".

DR. E. K. CLARK, a remarkable healthy and active man who who still practices osteopathic medicine, will tell you that Baker's Band was the best around. The former bass player who never drank beer remembers that the old Sands 4th Regimental Band in Columbus was known then as one of the state's best Bands--"It was about the only band we were afraid of". Still filled with the pride that director George W. Baker must have instilled-in his musicians, he recalled his thoughts when he first heard the 4th Regimental Band play. "Phooey", I said "those fellows ought to take some music lessons".

THE LAST THREE, living members of the band recalled playing at the Ohio State Fair, the Chautauqua, the Saturday night concerts on public square in Mount Gilead and traveling on the crowded train with the Huber and Marion Steam Shovel Co. excursions to Cedar Point and Belle Isle, the amusement park between Detroit and Canada. Baker's Band always played at the Farmer's picnic at Blow's Grove near Meeker and Bill's picnic at the fairgrounds.

Everybody for miles around by the name of Bill was invited to the Bill's picnic, an annual affair which Dr. F. W. Clark, recalled was "like a county fair." Nearly a thousand Bills' showed up and they even invited Bill (William) McKinley, the 25th President, and Bill (William Jennings) Bryan, the golden-throated proponent of free silver, and read their telegrams of regret at the picnic. Baker's Band, always played at political rallies when Harding ran for governor in 1910. They also played at the West End Businessman's Concerts and in all kinds of Masonic parades.

Everyplace the Masons went we went with them. Dr. E. K. Clark recalled, "They wouldn't go any place without hiring us." There were happy times and some sad ones, too. The saddest was the day Baker's Band played at the funeral of its beloved director and manager. That was July 20, 1917. Both the Marion Star and the old Marion Tribune reverently pictured, George W. Baker as Marion's "Music Man" of the 1890's and early 1900's, less the rascal of Meredith Wilson's Prof. Harold Hill who made the city a happier one with his musical talents and, unlike Prof. Hill richer for his presence.

MR. BAKER, a traveling salesman of musical instruments, came to Marion in 1891 and took charge of the local interests of A. W. Brinkerhoff and Sons. That same year he helped organize the People's Band and was elected its leader and director in 1892. He established his own piano store in 1900. Mr. Allen, "Louie", was one of the original members of the People's Band.

The two Clark Brothers, their father Edward Kennedy Clark, painted and lettered the first Marion Steam Shovel, joined the band after returning from the St. Louis World's Fair of 1904, with the Prospect K. of P. Band. Sometime between then and 1908, they recall the People's Band became known as Baker's Band.

Mr. Baker directed the band named after him up until spring of 1917. Old newspaper accounts show the last time he appeared with the band was at, "The great patriotic mass rally on the Courthouse square" just proceeding the declaration of war in early April, 1917. That Decoration Day, The Tribune noted for the first time in years he was not at the head of the band in the parade. But his faithful musical group went to his home after the ceremonies and played for an hour. George Baker was then dying of Bright's Disease.

BAKER BAND, again serenaded its ailing leader on the Fourth of July. Sixteen days later they played at his funeral along with the Shrine Band of Columbus. Baker's Band led what the Tribune said was "along line of march" to Marion Cemetery. After that the last three survivors of the band recall that it "dwindled away". From the long list of drafted dough boy appearing in the paper, members of Baker's Band probably were inn their horns for a nun to fight the Kaiser.

THE PIONEER MOTHERS

Ruth: 1:16

Whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodges", I will lodge thy people shall be my people, thy GOD my GOD.

These famed words, spoken by a devoted, daughter of her mother-in-law; are inscribed on the base of the statue "The Pioneer Mother" placed at the eastern end of the Old Santa Fe Trail.

They breath the spirit of the mother who ministered to her family and with unfaltering trust in GOD, suffered the hardships of the unknown to prepare a homestead of peace and plenty for her children. She did it gladly, joyfully.....So far as the records go, there is no evidence that she considered herself imposed upon or the victim of circumstances. Like Ruth she gave up her old life and familiar associations willingly and started out, unhesitatingly and unafraid with those she loved best.

The reason was not far to seek; there was a dream in her heart, far horizons beckoned and distant scenes called; not because they were new-and unfamiliar, but because they had promise of a better future. Present hardships could be endured, because the miles and days ahead were full of hope. Thus Mothers live in the tomorrows as well as the todays. And every mother partakes of the blessed qualities of the pioneer mothers.

When the hand of creation shaped all things, he wove through out the cloth of life the thread's of a woman's soul. He filled her heart with intriguing mystery, that she might inspire her counterpart and build in him the strong fiber of a man. In her soul there runs the wildness of the wilderness, the vista of the plains, the romance of the sea, and in her heart dwells the song of youth never leaving her, it is always there. In her fantastic dream empires come and go, humblest home made into bits of heaven.

Toward the corner of the cabin, is "Mother's work stand", upon which lies the Bible, evidently much used, and its family record telling of parents and friends a long time off; and telling, too, of children "Scattered like roses in bloom". Some at the bridal and some at the tomb. Her spectacles, as if but just used, are inserted between the leaves of the Bible, and tell of her purpose to return to its comforts when cares permit and duty is done. Let us, for a moment watch the city visitor to this humble cabin, in later years, the city bride, innocent but thoughtless and ignorant of labor and care, ask her city-bred husband, "Pray, what savage set this up"? Honestly confessing his lack of understanding, he replies that he does not know. But see the pair on whom a rapid glance about the cabin home, a pair on whom age sits "frosty and kindly", first they enter, they gave look to each other and tears started to fill their eyes, there are many who knew why, who have learned in the school of experience the full meaning of all those symbols of trials and privations of loneliness and danger they can comprehend the story and tell of the

pioneer mothers.

MEMORIES

Dale Rhoads and Florence King were married, October 6, 1915 at LaRue, Ohio by Reverend Sutton, a Baptist Minister. We started our home in a new house, one half mile east of Meeker, Ohio--on the farm where Dale was born. Dale's parents lived just across the road in the house that was build by Dale's grandfather in 1853. I was born two miles east of Meeker on a farm, where my parents and grandparents lived.

Dale and I attended one room schools and had to walk two miles, rain or shine. Centralized schools and school buses were unheard of in those days.

Dale and I have two daughters, Margaret and Eula, who graduated from Meeker High School and the Marion Business College. During their school years, The girls helped with farm and home work. After graduation they worked at office work in Marion, Ohio. Margaret married Clarence Gracely and they have two sons, John and Robert.

Due to an auto-train accident when Dale was nineteen, which left him with a bad leg, his health was not always the best, but he never complained.

His death came on November 26, 1956, and was a bitter, bitter blow to our family. He is buried in the Meeker Cemetery in the community where he liked to be all his life.

MARIE ANDERSON

The Review:

In the Fall of 1893 or 1894, Elmer Kerr's Grocery Store burned down. The people of Scott Town was awakened by someone ringing the Hotel dinner bell and yelling fire, fire. My folks could hear it where they lived (Earnest Wiley's). No telephones. Elmer went and unlocked the door and let his dog out and locked it back up. A Veterinary, Dr. Dan Cliffe and wife, Alice and her brother, Less Williams, Kennel boys, Schultz boys, George Kennedy, Elmoth Alexander, Spangler boys, the Moon boys carried buckets of water and we used horse blankets and were up on the roofs of Uncle Ell Mason's Barber Shop, the Hotel and Livery barn roofs and Uncle John Webbs and Aunt Jane Masons' house and saved them all. No telephones. No fire trucks, across from the store were three or four maple trees. They were scorched and they went on growing and we could see the damaged bark as long as they stood and that was forty or fifty years.

When we remodeled the church in 1907 and 08, we put in an acetylene light plant. It was in a shed behind the church. Every once in a while they would go out. One night Lydia Davis had her eyes closed and was leading in prayer and the lights went out about the time she opened her eyes and she thought for a second she had gone blind.

One Sunday night about, February, 1918, when Rev. E. L. Bias was preaching, the lights went out and the janitor, Mr. Wm. Ducat, and Anson Parish, went out to the little shed and one of them lit a match and there was a flash of fire and Mr. Parish got his eye brows singed and his face burned and Dr. Fields bandaged him up and some one fixed the lights and we went on with the meeting. Our neighbor Babe Kannel was twelve or thirteen and he can remember the fire so can Iva Peters. I can remember when the South side of Scott Town (Main St.) was a pasture field and there was an orchard and old barn we called Kennel's barn. The South street was open only at East End. There was the Chas. Partridge house on South side of the street and across from it was the Jacob Home and house, and East side of that the James Hatfield house. About 1900, Frank Pfeiffer built the house on the corner known now as the hill in front of the church. The Mason house and opened up the street. The John Moon, house built next to Mason's, then John Brunner built next to it. About 1901, 02 or 03, Dave McBeth built a new house across from Schultz's store (Lewis folks bought it in 1913) then Dr. S. W. Mattox built the house where Ford's live and Wm. Bader built the house where Mae Day lives, then the house next to it was built for Mr. and Mrs. McKelvey, Harry McIntire had the house built that Charlotte lives in and Elmer Kerr had the next two houses built and between them was the telephone exchange. Frank Pfeiffer married Alex Brady's sister Hessie and they lived on the back street about 2 years. He took typhoid fever and died and Wilson Mason bought the house. Wilson Mason called himself an Atheist and followed Bob Ingersoll He had printed on the barn "Key of the Bastille, Given to Lafayfette by Thomas Payne". I never have figured it out, but it was on the barn for years.

ADVENTURES IN NOSTALGIA

The "Good Old Days" are our fondest and most cherished memories days which the younger generations should consider part of their paternity, and part of their heritage. Let us recall, if we can, what historians call a "Circa", (ser'ke) our circa if of the year 1900, if we were born just over the line of the Gay Nineties, or the Guilted Age, or of the Victorian Age, in those days they did not have the fancies of the present age, and if we can remember well, our time was during the Gaslight Era.

Father wore a mustache, run a tile yard for Tom Hoyle an Englishman. We had oil lamps, always a job to fill and wash chimney's, polish them, cut wick, this was done after the dishes were washed. Monday was wash day, cloths were soaked, whites over night, rubbed then put in a boiler to scald, rubbed again, was a back breaking job, but how white they were and the beauty of accomplishment as they hung on the line so white and fresh. Tuesday we ironed and mended, Wednesday we worked on projects, fancy work, making rugs Thursday any work that needed to be done, Friday was clean up day, washing windows, mirrors, washing kitchen furniture,

sweeping, dusting, on Saturday was baking day, pies, cakes, cookies, scrubbing walks and marketing. Sunday no indulgences but church and preparing meals.

Today the part of the house where people like to gather is the family room, in the good old days it was the sitting room. It was the warmest, most comfortable and all around dispensary of cheerfulness in winter. It used to produce the ultimate in joy that appealed to the young, middle age and oldsters. A four letter word describes such in the average home, it was c-o-z-y. The louder the wind whistled around the corners of the house, the harder the shutters banged, and the higher the snow piled, the sitting room always met the test in comfort. That presence was manifested in a monarch who's comforting warmth touched every room and corner of the house, this was the big heating stove (base burner). Through the windows of mica fronting the stove with a cherry red glow was seen, chairs were moved closer as the cold increased and there was a general retreat when the heater breathed to check the icy

drafts that inched in through cracks under doors and windows.

These ancient models of heat producers were resplendent in heavy polished nickel trimmings, they required a maximum of hand polishing to maintain their beauty. Also frequent need of buffing to bring out the shine, on pipes which Carried the warmth to other rooms.

The larger models were around 300 lbs. They performed best when stoked with hard coal, but in some areas heavy chunks of wood were used. The out-door shed with axe and saw were best evidence of the truth of the old saying, that the man who burned wood in winter was twice warmed, remember?

OH! SAY DO YOU REMEMBER "THAT OLD FEATHER BED?"

Chill, winter days stir memories of that great feather bed, the greatest of all comforts, with the striped tick filled full of goose feathers, picked by mother or grandmother, from great white geese. They would take them to barn, put an old stocking over their heads and pick away. Always looked enormous on a double bed, plumped to bursting with down and two massive pillows. You slept not on but in a feather bed. Gently it engulfed you. In the good old days, a feather bed was IT. There was a pleasant scent of moth balls, the rustling of fresh sheets and patch work quilts, a "Hen and Chickens" or "Log Cabin" blocks. The bedstead its self was a magnificent construction of gleaming brass, it was a great bed for sleeping in, and equally fine for bouncing on or hiding under. If you tired of such sport, the bed might become a ship, train, or a cloud, or a sleigh, once it was a circus cage, the tiger (me) caught its head between the brass bars and frantic efforts of grandma to free me, there was really a circus, Helping to make up the feather bed was a joyous task. She took her broom handle, and my short broom handle, we smoothed its surface. She would flip the sheets, and then a light blanket across it, and behind I would catch and secure them tucking them in carefully as she had taught me, Finally came the heavier quilts, and then the white spread, grandma plumped them with a pillow shams.

Science and Interior Decorators have done away with the feather bed...and for good reason, I suppose. But those old feather beds make mighty warm remembering of a cold winter's night of the GOOD OLD DAYS.

MEMORIES IN REVIEW

Now we turn our mental visions back to the log cabin days and contrast those crude dwellings with the plush homes we have today. Let us enter, to the left is the deep wide fireplace, a group of children could set in front by the fire and look up through the chimney and count the stars while ghostly stories of witches and giants, and still more thrilling stories of Indians and wild beasts were being told.

On the great crane hangs the old tea kettle and the great iron pot, the huge shovel and tongs stand sentinel on either side, while the grates and iron wait patiently for the huge back-log. Over the fire place hangs the trusty rifle, at the right side stands the spinning wheel, while in the back of room the loom, looms up with dignity. Strings for drying apples and poles of drying pumpkins are overhead.

THE OLD LOG HOUSE

All alone and drear the log house stands,

Built long ago by sturdy hands--

Hands that now are laid to rest,

In years gone have turned to dust,

But the chimney still remains,

A monument of skill and pain;

Teaching us our lives should be

Fashioned for eternity.

Within it's gloomy, cold and still--

No joyful sound the heart to thrill,

If these old walls could only speak,

And aught could now their silence break,

What tales of human hearts they'd tell.

Of joys and sorrows which befell,

Of scenes of gladness and of mirth,

Of tears which fell beside the hearth.

And Oh! If these old walls could speak,

Of all the games of hide and seek,

Of many a merry apple cut,

And ruder games of barley butt;

When all the house from sill to rafter,

Echoed with shouts and merry laughter,

Of all the moon-light husking bee's,

And frolics' neath the orchard trees.

OLD TIME GROCERY STORE

Although we know that modern methods are superior to those of yesterday, still the modern youth will never know the joys of shopping in an old fashioned grocery. These joys may exist in foreign land, but not in the United States, the land of packaged foods. Chief joys were inhaling the intense odors always found in those stores, the odors overflowed through open doors, serving to advertise the merchants wares. Few foods or condiments in those days were packaged. Ground spices were the exception and could be had in bulk, to take home and grind, or pulverize.

We were often told pure pepper, did not come in boxes, so ground our own. Cinnamon came in curls, "sticks", coffee arrived in bulk, my mother had a coffee mill (wonder where it is today) and it became very fragrant when ground in a mill, turned by hand. Sugar came in 100-pound sacks, grocers would scoop out of sack or barrel what the customer wanted. Dried fruit had a lure, displayed in open boxes and were very often prey to the lad wanting to know how they tasted. You could smell the prunes, apples, and peaches for free, but that never quite satisfied a lad's curiosity.

Cheese came in a thick wheel, about 40 pounds, with cheese cloth and fragrances seeping through into the store. Vinegar came in barrels or kegs. What can we say it smelled like? Not roses, there were to many mingled odors to permit us to say it smelled like anything but a grocery store.

Folks gathered round the cozy stove,

They loved its cheerful roar,

It mocked the winds that shrieked around,

The old time grocery store.

The grocer waited on the trade,

And when the task was done,

He'd sit down on the old plank seat,

And join the chat and fun.

The general grocer's dead and gone,

The crowd is no more,

But heaven's choir still chants its praise,

The old time grocery store.

MEMORIES OF THE OLD DAY'S

Today, a housewife gathers eggs, not by the nestful as of old, but by the Styrofoam carton, And those glistening cartons, neatly stacked in supermarkets, are a far cry from the egg gathering we did in the old days.

One neighbor would ask, "How 're your hens laying?" In the early day getting the family flock in production and keeping it there was very important to a family. The level of egg money income, determined the grocery budget, or material for that new dress, come peddlin wagon day. Woe to the hen who did not do her part, she became "Sunday Dinner", most often.

About the time the first balmy breeze of spring blew in, hens would get broody, then started the hen setting season. For each hen setting we would choose 15 eggs of good size and near perfect shape, we would pencil designs, had nothing to do with the eggs hatching, but enabled us to detect any new eggs laid in the nest. Then at the end of 3 weeks a thrilling experience took place, we saw cracked shells, tiny heads peeking from spreading wings. Around the farm each spring you'd see hens with their broods, worm stuffed, cracked corn, etc. Corn was put through a corn sheller, grains cracked in a grinder, and when Mom said they were old enough to grind their own I was always happy. Soon Mother was sizing up the roosters for the frying pan, and how good

they tasted. Roughly half of the flock would be roosters, and in that freezer-less era, they had to be eaten in season. Many a meal came from the flock of chickens, sunny side egg's for breakfast, fried chicken in season, of an old hen and dressing with a pot of noodles or pot-pie (blue dumplings) Father called them. All this is a forgotten day, how-ever. Chicken ready to fry, is available all year around. A crispy golden platter of fried chicken goes on our table any day of the year, but as for "ole setting hen's" who expects to see then? They're scarcer than hen's teeth.

THE OLD SLATE

Say, what has become of the old slate

That we used at school in-say (98)?

The little old slate that was bound with red felt-

And don't you remember how musty it smelt?

And don't you think it was the sponge we used to rub out

The words and numbers we'd awkwardly write.

(But some little rascal-my goodness-used to spit)

And believe as they dried it-its hard to believe

They used nothing less than their hand or their sleeve.

That seems like a terrible thing to be told

But things are so different before you are old.

And don't you remember that sharp little sound

The slate pencil made, as we scratched it around?

And Oh, what a screech, now and then we would make

I'll bet teacher thought her ear-drums would break!

What wouldn't we give to be back in that seat

With your little slate when all life was so sweet?

And wouldn't you like to take back with you too,

That same little happy-eyed gang that you knew?

But I don't believe we would be different men,

If we could go back, and start over again,

But Oh, IF WE COULD, it would surely be great,

To start over once more with a clean slate.

MEMORIES

Memories are prancing imps-who come and cause to cry-and unfreeze hearts where-in they lie. They take us by the hand, to lead us back to the time when life was in perfect rhyme. Within our hearts full of hope we as youth look for the days when contentment comes to us, for we travel afar and fast, some reap great rewards, some find hope can not last, then we long for that simple life of freedom, friendships deep and strong, it flows through your blood and the call is there and to wander back in the familiar fields of home.

WE HAD- DO YOU REMEMBER Victrola playing records and player piano's, we had parlor's which were sit in only for company. Remember when--A bottle of pop was a once a week treat when the family went to town.

A five-cent bag of candy could be shared.

There were no refrigerators and when anyone wanted a drink

they went to the pail of water.

Dancing was done with the feet.

Kids walked to school and had no need for calisthenic exercises when they got there.

Everyone who-wanted to, got-a pretty good education, and without the advantage of head starts and kindergarten,

gymnasiums and stadiums or athletic teams.

Corrective measures when taken with delinquents were appl at the seat of learning.

People could get along on what they had.

Things that could be ill-afforded were thought of as luxury and not a necessities.

About the only kind of money there was to be had was the kind had to be worked for.

The only government handouts were a few seeds once a year

People had only their own troubles to listen to and think about and didn't look at and listen to daily reminders of world troubles.

THE ONE ROOM SCHOOL

I was born and raised in the country hills,

Where I went to school with other Jacks and Jills,

I still cherish the memories of seventy years ago;

All happy days, in many ways, I can not let them go.

In the fall a simple teacher to our school was assigned

Each one dedicated and capable and to patience inclined.

The term was only seven month, as I recall,

So, we were free from early spring until late fall.

Oh! that one-room school house, so sturdy and trim

With two rows of shiny desks neatly arranged within.

Up front a large table served the teacher of us all

And stretching behind a blackboard, from wall to wall.

Then there was the recitation bench which all did share,

As each grade took turns reciting its lessons with care.

In season, a coal stove sat in the middle of the room,

Which, on occasion, would grow red and fairly bloom.

The water bucket was handy with its single dipper of tin,

Exposing all to contagion if your blood was running thin.

In mid-morning and mid-afternoon, fifteen minutes for recess,

As boys with their dexterity, tried the girls to impress.

We studied reading, writing, arithmetic and all the rest,

As most tried very diligently to go "A" on every test.

Oh! those weekly spelling bees, such excitement, such fun,

Especially for the last one standing with the victory won.

Today, the once spacious playgrounds lie deserted and gray

The one-room school house has, long since, been carted away.

But the mental beauty of it all, man nor time can erase,

For among my fondest memories, it still has a special place.

**MEMORIES * MEMORIES * MEMORIES**

In memories let us go back to the little red school house with the pot-bellied stove, there were in those days all the grades to eight. How one teacher worked in all those grades in one day is hard to understand now but she did a good job of it with time left over. A spelling Bee or City Hunt on Friday, late in afternoon, it improved our spelling, sometimes we recited poetry or sang.

Our water supply was carried from the nearest farm house. There was no water to wash the hands, and no plumbing, just two small buildings at the side of the school lot. There was no playground equipment. We made up our own games. At this time we walked to school. Bobsleds were a delight if we caught one going to or from school. Some times we walked or ran behind to keep warm. Snow ploughs were unheard of in those days and these Bobsleds opened the roads for travel. They crushed the drifts herds enough for horses to travel over. Sleigh bells were put on the horses and away we would go taking a sleigh ride to the tune of the bells. Skating parties on cold nights were fun, parties were formed and we went to some pond, sometimes the moon shone white on the wintery snow but we carries lanterns to light our way. We would have play parties and taffy pulls. Sometimes a whole load of us went in bobsleds parties, straw filled with blankets to keep us warm, would heat bricks to keep our feet warm. We had foot stones to take to bed on cold nights, we have a polished soapstone about a foot square and an inch thick with a wire handle. The climate in our bed rooms was about the same as the north pole, once we got a spot warmed we did not move.

I think one of the most pleasant things in the world was to come home from school and open the door to the smell of home made bread. My mother sure was a wonderful bread baker. Loaves of bread and bread biscuits all spread on the table to cool, we each break a biscuit in half and spread it with fresh butter ma churned and then apple butter or grape jam. After supper its lessons around the table the older ones helped the younger ones, a pan of apples from the cellar was always; the table. Some nights after lessons we popped corn or a bowl of bread and milk before bedtime.

We had fun on Valentine Day, every one got a card of some kind, some were made some bought, and a lot of funny one's were present. All the children's diseases went through the school, measles, chickenpox, mumps, etc.

HAT'S OFF TO GRANDMA'S APRON

When I was a small girl, I vowed when I was grown I would always wear an apron like Grandma's. Her aprons were large enough to cover the whole front of her dress.

They were the handiest things. My mother didn't wear aprons and I knew how many times someone had to run back to the house to get a basket or a bucket because of this fact.

We would be in the garden and mother would say, "I believe there are enough peas here to make a mess for dinner". Nancy, run to the house and get a pan and I'll pick them.

If my sister and I were out walking with Grandma and came across a patch of nice raspberries, she would gather up her apron to make a pouch and we would pick enough for a pie. Didn't waste any time at all going back for a pan. When Grandma was along we liked hunting for nests the old hens would hide, if we found one we did not have to go home for a basket, her apron was right there to hold the eggs. Her apron would gather up the small chicks who were trying to squeeze under a rock to get away from the rain with their old chunky mother.

You could pick more ripe tomatoes than you intended with out any inconvenience. If you found more ripe wild strawberries than you could eat, Grandma would carry them in her apron.

I remember one time Grandpa came in the kitchen and sniffed and said, "apple pie". Grandma answered, "well, I didn't plan to bake one, but on my way in from the garden, I saw some nice apples on the ground and hated to see them go to waste". Her apron did the job as far as I was concerned.

But if my husband had come along, his hat would have answered for a apron. It can hold enough berries for a pie, or a tiny rabbit he found along a wind row of hay and brought to the house to show the children or some nice cucumbers he saw as he walked along the edge of the garden. Some of the nicest surprises have emerged from his hat. If we see him coming towards the house carrying it instead of wearing it, we all run to see what he had inside. The children are no longer impressed because some magician on television can pull a rabbit out of his hat. Their father has been doing it for as long as they can remember.

As I walked and found mushrooms, and wondering what to do with them my husband would get off the tractor, on top of the hill, although I could not hear him, I knew he was asking if I needed help. I waved frantically for him to come, then picked the rest of the mushrooms, knowing his hat will be with him.

MAGIC WORDS

OLD TIME FARM:

As the memory web is woven, you can see the old farm kitchen, the pots and pans and skillets, the wood box behind the stove. Fall brought the threshing crews, corn husking bees, wild nuts to be gathered and stored for winter, home made apple butter, vinegar small boys had chores to do after school, carrying in cobs taking out ashes, shoveling snow in winter, mowing lawn in summer, raking leaves, leisure time was spent catching fish swimming, in winter trapping skunks, muskrats, mink. We had no comic books, we read Zane Grey. The River Boys, Black Beauty Uncle Tom's Cabin, American Boy, if you were lucky, "Treasure Island", was a nugget of pure joy. We floated down the Mississippi with Huck Finn, we did not need T.V. for entertainment. We made our own, group singing, taffy pulls, playing various games. Yes, to those of us who really lived and toiled and loved and who did all cheerfully and faithfully, those days were indeed a golden area; safely from tensions, good books and music, fond memories and harmony.

FIRST PRE-SEASON SNOW FALL :

It always sent chills down our backs- flakes looked as large as goose feathers as they floated gently to earth. Here it was September 29th. as plain as day. We were caught with overcoats still in moth-balls and now come the autumnal set up of the huge heater resplendent in nickel trim still up stairs all wrapped with newspaper, stove part in an outbuilding or on back porch, all covered with pieces of carpet or old sheets to prevent the shine from vanishing. This job had nothing compared with the job when it was put away for winter, soot had to be cleaned out of pipe and chimney. Some times a catastrophe happened, when soot got all over everything including the one doing the work. Of course, soot was soot no matter where it fell, carpets had to be cleaned, had to be taken up sometimes needless to say ever one suffered. Six months was a

short time in which to forget what had taken place the spring before- but when that old heater warmed a person to the bone all was forgotten. Take the kitchen range, that recalls a lot, of pleasant memories, a glowing fire warmed the soul as well as the lady. What is more pleasant than the thought of that stove, the comfort, delight, the smell of things cooking on back of stove, made to cook or bake on, keep warm and heat sixteen gallons of water all at same. It had a heat range all the way from red hot to simmer, without a lot of gadgets, switches, buttons or bells. Baked several loaves of bread, what aroma, hard crust bread, soft butter and apple butter, it-was a conversation piece, served as an ash tray, burned papers, neighbors would come set around stove, enjoy each others company, solve problem, make plans, with it went the old wood shed, which was a good institution of learning and it did not cost many millions either, Often it proved to be a better institution of learning than todays Universities of higher education. Father was Dean of men in those days, but didn't have time for long drawn out hearings, debated, when ever his young sons disobeyed instructions he simply led them to the wood shed, not much vandalism or crime in those days.

My memory goes back to the days when we walked to school, called in by a little bell, to read McGuffey Readers, Ray's arithmetic, spelling matches, city contest on Friday afternoon's. Winter with snow, bob-sleds and rides home from school, then to the cellar for apples, I always was glad to be asked to go to the cellar for mother, to get apples, potatoes, preserves, once mothers watermelon preserves went to sugar and we ate carmeled water melon all winter long. Cans of fruit, vegetables, bottle of grape juice, crocks of sauerkraut, about the only thing bought was sugar, salt, baking powder, cocoa, tea and spice.

Grandma and Grandpa somewhat bent from hard work, but still rugged had sprung from hardy stock and showed it, usually the frame house was a story and a half, it had a few fine pieces of furniture that had come down in the family, mahogany bureaus, marble tops, little cherry tables and maybe a chair or two. Ironstone basins and pitchers, hobnail glass, wall to wall carpet all of which was made by hand. There was kerosene lamps, Seth Thomas clocks ticking away on wall, walls sometimes papered, home made quilts, dark ones for every day, light for spreads, collectors items now. Quilts were made to be used, feather beds to sleep on seemed so safe, whippoorwills whistling over the field, priceless bit of family lore are these memories, life is ever Lord of Death, and love can never lose its own.

MEMORIES

Whenever I-think of the early days, in little towns or on Farms, isolated in a sort of way, there comes to me the

realization that they were the happiest days of my life.

We always had certain chores to do, things to look after when we came from school or any day for that matter. On the farm was the cows to get up from the pasture, if we had a good dog and we most always did have he helped a lot, then was to turn them back after the milking was done. We had a large pig pan that milk was put in for the cats, an sometimes around fifteen was there ready for that first lap of warm milk. Keeping the wood box filled was a task in its self, seemed any child of that age has the confirmed belief that he or she is the most misused creature in the world, and often entertained the thought of leaving home for good. One time I went to town with my mother, and when we got off the train I asked if there was a Farmer's Picnic some place, for I never saw so many people in one place in my life. My ignorance of city lift ways, caused me no end of bewilderment.

As far back as I can remember, my little world was made up of God's trees, his green meadows, running brooks, and today my heart goes back to the time when I was a little tyke clad in overalls seven days a week. We had a change, wore one pair to school, changed when we came home, maybe we had two shirts a week, I remember I had a pair of corduroy pants (I thought I was a King) that I wore a little later in my school days, with a jacket to match, It was something to be proud of. Yes, ignorant, but one of the happiest lads that ever lived. We would ride horse back as Dad plowed the corn, and how important we felt as we yanked the line with all our might and ordered the horses to whoa, giddy up, gee and haw.

I would set on a log or in the fence row of woods in the cool shadows and listen to the teeming insect life of the meadows, to the shrill voices of the locust and katydids, I watched the meadow lark and humming birds flitter over the fields, and soft voices of the woods in my ears-a-presence something devine in it all.

There is the recollection of the barn, the hay mow and high rafters recalling how we took chances as we went hand over hand across the fork railing, to drop on the hay below, and going barefoot. What a delight when mother told us we could take our shoes off for the first time in the spring, that first tender step-but it wasn't long before we could run, jump with ease.

It was in such an environment that most of us lived in our childhood, some forsake for the city life, and its culture, but always intended sometime to go back to the woods, green fields and running brooks, and wood-box's. -

MEEKER REVIEW

There was little diversification in a farming community in the old days, father came in from his chores cold heavy boots, he sits by the stove a few moments before he takes off his outer clothes, he sits in his big chair, adjusts his glasses, turns up the kerosene lamp a bit, and picks up Sunday's paper, but the contrast of the outside cold is too much, for he is soon asleep.

In Summer the farmers set on their porch when day was done, looking out over the newly plowed fields, the meadows of green grain or clover, or fields of golden grain, he sees his herd of cattle settling down for the day, the lambs at play, just before they find their mothers to snuggle up at night, he hears the content grunt of the pigs after a feed of grain, or sight of horses as they lie down in their stalls. He and his wife think back over the years of their lives their joys and sorrows, family gatherings, Christmas, Thanksgivings, Weddings, the sorrow of a son or daughter straying away from their teachings, the death of family and friends, the wonderful gift of children, who have taken their place in life and the world. Off-times precious things come late in life to them, but they cherish them anyway. Wondering if their accumulations in savings will provide for their needs in case of sickness and to lay them away at the end of their journey.

Mid-week prayer meetings was an event no one wanted to miss, mainly because of the farm talk and community gossip, swapped after the meeting. Box socials and barn dances provided about the only amusement. Christmas eve party at church was a main topic of every home. The party line was kept busy if there were telephones, if not word traveled fast anyway. Food was prepared, popcorn, and what not, the sleigh, sled, all played a part. The entertainment strictly local, the tree, each child receiving a little sack of candy and an orange which came only at Christmas. On Christmas day we gathered in the front room, sang by organ music, "Silent Night", "Away In The Manger". By todays standards it would not be much of a Christmas. but to us it was beautiful.

ICE HOUSES

There was ice before refrigerators made it. Some ice houses had under ground rooms, about ten by twelve feet. It would accommodate cakes of ice three feet by two, they weighed 200 lbs., cutting and hauling was a yearly event, really social gathering as fifty or more men would go to the frozen stream early in January and saw out the great blocks of ice, it would take two men with a rope to handle each block, as they worker there was much joking and bantering, the work was hard and heavy but spirits were light.

Sometimes they had to go several miles for ice. The ice cellar was lined with straw and chaff and snow was packed between the blocks. If it was of good quality and well packed, there would be a supply until September. It was the chore of the man for the house to chop out a hunk of ice for his family and daily use, and for picnics, for ice cream, none of the precious ice was wasted. It was placed in top of a chest and covered with paper to make it keep longer. Later there was ice saws attached to car motors, and perhaps then a lot of the glamor began to fade, and what a shame, for they were such friendly affairs with every one pitching in and working so heartily. In these days the good neighbor policy was not

something you read in the paper, it was something that was part of family living.

LOG CABIN BUILDING

There are four different ways in which logs were notched and fitted to make a log cabin. The oldest way was the chamber and notch which came into use in the 1700's. This type was used most on rough cabins and used in this part of the county.

It was cut in such a way that water falling on it will be drained on down to next log and so on. They were sawed out and fitted that each log is permanently locked into place and cannot be

removed. Scarcely any room for a blade or a pen knife to go between. Some of the individual logs were 26 inches in width, and took five logs to a side.

Another type or style of notching was the share notch, was used mostly on rough out buildings and such. As many of the rougher buildings were made from quarter or eights of a log which had been split length wise, these split pieces lent themselves well to this type of notching.

The other two types included the saddle notch, and the square notch. The early American Homestead type of the 1800"s.

Do the roses bloom still Happy were the hours

By the old iron gate? When we used to sing

And the whippoorwill call On the old front porch

In the evening late? In the rustic swing.

Do the trees still stand When winter came on

That we used to climb Inside gathered all

And the arbor in back To "List to Grandma,

With its twisted vine? Dear ones all gone now

Is the path still worn Some drifted apart

Round the bend a-ways? But all have memories

Where we used to walk That live in the Heart.

In the by-gone days? Back Home.

SALE BILL OF 1849

Having sol d my farm and am leaving for Oregon Territory by Ox Team, and will offer March 1, 1849, all of my personal property to wit:

All Ox Teams except two teams, Bud and Ben, Tom and Jerry: 2 milk cows, 1 gray mare and Cal t, pal r of Oxen and Yoke; one baby Yoke; 2 Ox Carts, 1 iron foot of poplars weather boards; plow with mole wood boards; 800 to 1000 three foot clap boards; 1500 ten foot fence rails; 1-60 gallon soap kettle; 85 troughs made of white oak timber; 10 gal. Maple Syrup; 2 Spinning Wheels; 30 lbs. of Mutton Tallow; 1 large barrel of Johnson Millers's Whiskey, 7 years old; 20 gallons Apple Brandy; 1-40 gallon Copper Still; 1 doz. real books; 2 handle hooks; 3 scythes and cradles; 1 doz. wood pitchforks; one half interest in Tan yard; 1-32 caliber Rifle, Bullet mold and powder horn; rifle made by Ben Miller; 50 gallon of Sorghum Molasses; six head of fox hounds, all soft mouthed except one.

"At the same time I will sell my six Negro Slaves- 2 men, 35 and 50 years old; 2 boys, 12 and 8 years old; 2 mulatto wenches, 40 and 30 years old, will sell altogether to the same party as will not separate them."

"Terms of sale, Cash, in hand, or to draw 4% interest with Bob McConnell as surety. My home is two miles south of Versailles, Ky., on the McCouns Ferry Pike. Sale begins at 8 o'clock A.M. Plenty to eat and drink.

J. L. Moss

THE MARION STAR----------PAGE 8, COLUMN 4------------MONDAY, MARCH 20, 1905

DEATH MENACES GYPSY QUEEN

Is Member of Band Camping near Scott Town.

Gives Birth to child last Thursday Night.

Since that time her death is hourly feared

she revived somewhat Sunday Morning.

But Physicians say she cannot recover--in the camp she

is known as QUEEN CLEO.

Lying at the point of death in a tent in a woods on the farm of Horace W. Riley, two miles and a half east of Scott Town, is the so called Queen of a band of Brazilian Gypsies. Last Thursday Night, she gave birth to a daughter, she had not the care of a physician. A few hours afterward, she became unconscious, since which time her death has been hourly expected. Saturday, Dr. J. H. Criswell of this city was called to see the gypsy queen. She was then unconscious and the doctor believed she would live only a few hours. However, he gave her all the medical attention possible. Saturday evening several members of the tribal came to the city and purchased candles to place around the body of their queen whom they supposed dead. Sunday morning the queen revived slightly but grew worse again today. She can not survive the physician states.

The members of the band of gypsies are unable to speak English intelligently and about the only information that can be gotten as to the dying woman's names is that she is Queen Cleo. The child is hearty and strong.

THE MARION STAR----- ---------------Page 8, Column 3----------------------Tuesday, March 2

DEATH CLAIMS A YOUNG QUEEN

She is the head of a Band Brazilian Gypsies--

The rites held over the body of the dead------

The funeral will be held in St. Mary's Church in this city, Wednesday morning at 8 o'clock and burial will follow in St. Mary Cemetery---Gypsies Mourn for their Queen.

She died of uremic poisoning, contributing cause being child birth. The dead queen was about 29 years of age. Her death was expected since last Friday. The young queen's death was mourned by the band of perhaps half and hundred gypsies all night. At noon today one of the old men of the tribe came to the city to secure an undertaker. At the undertaking establishment of Hess and Kirkendall he wince a great dislike to newspaper reporters, and with many gestures and rumbles of foreign words refused to tell the undertaker the dead woman's name to make out the burial

certificate until a reporter left the room. "Me don't like ye"', l he muttered through his teeth to the reporter, his black deep sunken eyes flashing with sudden wrath. The old man claimed to be a cousin to the dead woman, but would not give his name nor would he give any particulars to the undertaker other than were absolutely necessary. All the undertaker got from him was her age and name, which was given as Mrs. Anne Judge age 30 years.

The funeral services will be held at St. Mary's Church, Wednesday morning at 8 o'clock. Gypsies from Dayton, Cincinnati and other cities are expected to be present. Burial will take place in St. Mary Cemetery.

THE MARION STAR---------------Page 8, Column 2,--------------Wednesday, March 22, 1905

GYPSY QUEEN LAID TO REST

Ceremony of tribes performed at the grave. No tears, only mutterings are heard.

Wine is drunk to the repose of her soul and candles are burned-Behind death of the woman lingers a sad romance that is but half told.

With the strange, weird ceremony of their tribe' the remains of the queen of the band of Brazilian Gypsies were laid to rest in St Mary Cemetery this morning. It was the first gypsy funeral ever held in Marion. Before the body was removed from the morgue of Hess and Kirkendall a crowd of curious people endeavored to get a glimpse of the dead Queen, but was not permitted to enter the morgue. Even the undertaker was requested to leave, while the wise men of the tribe performed some sort of ceremony over the body, with the lighted candles burning around the casket. At Church short service was held. At the grave wine was drunk to the repose of the soul and candles were burned. Behind the death of the queen, who sacrificed her life in the act of maternity, lingers a story of love and-romance. Inie Driffhein, there a princess came to America. While here she met an American Charles Judge. She fell in love with him and despite all protest, married him. Shortly afterwards her mother died and she became the reigning Queen of her tribe. At the World's Fair in St. Louis, the King consort fell in love with a Egyptian girl and eloped with her. Since then the Queen had lived in seclusion, seldom leaving her tent. The child was born, daughter, and death ended the strange romance.

Many of the older Marionites will remember the burial of the Gypsy Queen, undoubtedly there are many who remember, as many of us do, the beautiful young woman clothed in red material possibly flannel, reposing in a full length open casket. (I believe they were called Couch Caskets) in front of the funeral parlor right in front of the large plate glass window. It impressed us all as she was so pretty. We were in the lower grades of school and knew that she was to be brought to the church for her funeral mass. We did not miss a thing and while memory sometimes, plays trick-with what we have and have not seen, we can definitely say that her the funeral was the same as will be accorded us and all members of our faith who are brought to the church for Requiem Mass. Father Joseph M. Denning the pastor at that time officiated. It was as usual in Latin and at times the responses were given by the tribe in their own language, which considering they were from Brazil, could have been Portuguese, Spanish or Patois of goodness known where. Had the reporter who covered the funeral but understood the ritual he would have known that they were praying instead of using such terms as "rumbling and muttering", to describe our Litany or perhaps the Rosary.

Her grave was the same as any other grave in the Cemetery. John Keefe was the sexton at that time and watch was placed at her grave for several nights, as was the customs of the time, especially when it was rumored that valuables of any sort were buried with a corpse. Many said tribal valuables and money, also wine matches and food were in the grave. No story lost by the telling. Superstition and just plain ignorance gave much color to the telling. This we do know that she was consigned to the grave with the final blessings of her church and her tribe. Her grave was marked with a plain wooden cross, which for many years showed, the lettering "Anne Judge"--"Wife of Tom" in black paint.

The years and weather erased the lettering, but the wood did not deteriorate--some one trimmed it down very short in the past year and pounded it down with a blunt instrument, which spoiled the looks of it, but Bill Lawler has had it capped with a metal finish and it looks real good now. The newspaper item said her husband was Charles and the cross said "Tom" so we do not know which was correct. We know that all including ourselves, would like to know if the child lived to adulthood and if she is living, and where?

The Hydrangeas-almost cover the cross and the weather has long since removed the lettering. You can see that the wood used was perfect to withstand the wear and tear of time and the carving at the end of the cross arms shows craftsmanship in wood working.

This letter is strictly to set the record straight as possible with no need for extra publicity. Too bad the reporter could not understand their language so he could not know what he was writing about--and vent his chagrin over being prevented from invading the privacy of the people of the tribe. Mr. Hess often spoke of it and saw nothing unusual in their desire to honor their Queen. Hess and Kirkendall was later Hess and Market and later Hess, Market and Axe. Larry Axe gave us the correct date of burial when we were looking up records and was very easy to follow through in the paper.

A WOLF STORY

John R. Knapp relates the following story, as having occurred in Big Island Township in early days:

Sam Britton, an eccentric young man, who was not afraid of anything or anybody, used to lead a hand in the sugar making season and make himself generally useful, and sometimes, when he took it in to his hand, Obnoxious. On one occasion, a dark and rainy night, he became irritated by something that occurred and bade the boys good-by, saying that he was going home, when, in fact, his intention was to visit a neighboring sugar camp. He had not trudged his way through darkness long, before a pack of wolves took after him, and he was obliged to drop in at an old deserted cabin, at one end was a shelf about thirty inches wide, and some eight or ten feet from the floor. Sam lost no time in securing this place of refuge, for he had hardly got into quarters before the wolves crowded the cabin floor, howling, some snapping their teeth and others jumping up for their prey. When Sam looked down on those varmints, he saw their eyes

glistening in the darkness like balls of fire, and had serious fears of becoming food for the beasts; but he had about eight inches to "count on", he hugged the cabin wall so close as to make him sweat. All night long the wolves kept their revelry, seemingly taking their turns in jumping at him. It was fortunate for him that the shelf was so high from the floor, or he would have been a "gone Sammy, sure", as daylight approached, his tormentors left him, greatly to his relief. On examing the front part of the shelf, it was found that at least two inches of it had been torn off in pieces by the wolves, in their desperate effort to capture their prey.

As late as May, 1861, $72.25 was offered for each wolf killed in Grand Prairie Township, and $15.00 for each whelp.

From the McGuffey Reader

TIME "WHAT IS TIME?"

I asked an aged man, A man of cares, wrinkled and curved, and white with hoary hair's, "Time is the warp of life he said, Oh tell the young, the fair, the gay, to weave it well".

I asked the venerable dead, sage who wrote, and worriers who bled from the cold grave, a hollow murmer flowed, "Time sowed the seed we reap in this abode".

I asked the dying sinner, ere the tide of Life has left has left his veins, "Time" he replied, "I've lost it Oh the treasure," and he died.

I asked the spirit lost, but Oh the shriek, that pierced my soul, I shuddered while I speak, It cried, "A particle, a speck, a mote of endless years duration, Infinite".

I asked my Bible, and me thinks it said, "Time is the present hour, the past is fled, Live, Live today tomorrow never yet on any human being rose or set.

I asked old Father Time himself at last, But in a moment he flew swiftly past, His chariot was a cloud the veinless wind his noiseless steed, which left no trace behind.

I asked the Mightily Angel who shall stand, One foot on Sea and one on solid land, "I now declare the Mystery is o'er "Time was" he cried, But Time shall be no more".

Mareden

THE DISCONTENTED PENDULUM

An old clock, that had stood for fifty years in a farm's kitchen, without giving its owner any cause of complaint, early one summer morning, before the family was stirring suddenly stopped. Upon this, the Dial-Plate (if we may credit the fable) changed countenance with alarm, the hands made a vain attempt to continue their course, The wheels remained motionless with surprise, the weights hung speechless, and each member felt disposed to lay the blame on the others. At length, the dial held a formal inquest as to the cause of the stagnation, When hands, wheels, weight with one voice protested their innocence, but, now a faint tick was heard, from the pendulum who then spoke, "I confess my self to be the sole cause of the stoppage and I am willing for the general satisfaction to assign my, reason, The Truth is that, "I am tired of ticking".

SCRAPBOOK HISTORY

The inventory was quite brief and simple,

She had not left behind great wealth and fame,

But, as we turn the pages of the scrapbook,

We found some hidden treasures to proclaim;

Events through years we long-since had forgotten,

And lace-edged valentines bore cheery notes,

With here and there a photograph of loved ones.

And souvenirs on which the aged dotes.

Two tiny feet-prints bore the marks of tear drops,

Which she had labeled "Johnny" who had died;

A simple rhyme she had taught me to deliver?

On Children's Day, while she looked on with pride.

Lest we forget. She had recorded birthdays.

When Bob took his first step. She wrote:

"My boy, you're starting new on life's uncharted highway,

May God give you great wisdom, faith and joy".

We found that she was once quite gay and pretty;

That she had entered into life with zest;

That suitors had declared their love in writing.

And some had put her virtue to the test.

Was this the his-to-ry of one departed?

Whose countenance was drab, and faded hair,

Fell carelessly about a wrinkled forehead.

Whose gait was -slow and who was bent with care?

As I reviewed these snapshot youthful partings,

I felt again her strong, assuring arm,

And once again her kiss was on my forehead;

Her sentence prayer- "God keep my child from harm".

And when I came across my wedding picture,

All decked in white and leaving her at last,

I can't forget the tears she shed in silence,

As I approached the future through her past.

I closed the book and sat in meditation.

Reversed the film of memory through the years.

To hear her sing again, as if entreating;

"Have Faith, and he will wipe away your tears".

BILL'S IN TROUBLE

I've got a letter, parson, from my son away out west,

An my old heart is heavy as an anvil in my breast,

To think the boy whose future I had once so nicely planned

Should wander from the path of right and come to such end.

I tol' him when he left us, only three short years ago,

He'd find himself a plowing in a mighty crooked row,

He's missed his father's counsel and his mother's prayer

But he said the farm was hateful and he guessed he'd I to go.

I know there's big temptations for a youngster in the we

But I believed our Billy had the courage to resist.

An' when he left I warned him of the ever waiting snares

That lie like hidden serpents in life's pathways ever' wheres.

But Billy he promised faithful to be careful, an allowed

That he would build a reputation that would make us mighty proud.

But it seems as how my counsel sort O' faded from his mind,

And now he's got in trouble of the very worstest kind

His letters come so seldim that I somehow sort 'a knowed

That Billy was a trampin' on a mighty rocky road,

But never once imagined he would bow my head in shame,

And in the dust'd wailer his old daddy's honored name

He writes from out in Denver, and the story's mighty short:

I just can't-tell his mother' - It'll crush her poor

Ol heart.

An, so I reckoned, parson, you might break the news to her-

Bill's in the Legislature, but he doesn't say what fur'e.

We Recall With Loving Memory The Names Of Our Departed Ones...

MEMORIAL TO FRANK WASHBURN - - - - August 1967

Because I could not stop for Death; He kindly stopped for me,

The carriage held but just Ourselves and Immortality.

We slow by drove; He knew no haste and I had put away,

My labor and my leisure too; For he's civility.

Death is delightful, Death is dawn; The waking from a weary night,

To truth and light, We're bound for Eternity; The carriage,

Death and Me.--

Juaquin Miller

Emily Dirkerson

MEMORIAL TO WALTER LAYMAN----------April 1968

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want,

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures;

He leadeth me besides the still waters,

He restoreth my soul;

He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake,

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the Shadow of Death,

I will fear no evil;

For thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy Staff they contort me,

Thou prepares" a table before me in the presence of mine enemies;

Thou annointest my head with oil, my cup runneth over,

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me, all the days of my life; -

And I will dwell in the- house of the Lord forever.

Psalm, 23

MEMORIAL TO ODESSA ROSZMAN - - - February 1968

It is so natural that we fall asleep

like little children when day is done,

That I would question why the living weep

When Death has kissed the laughing lips of one.

We do not sigh when golden skies have donned

The purple shadows and the gray of night,

Because we know the morning lies beyond

And we must wait a little while for light.

So when, grown weary with the care and strife

One loved one find in sleep, the peace they crave,

We should not weep, but learn to count their life.

A prelude to the one beyond the grave;

And then be happy for them, not distressed,

But left hearth with love to God and Smile,

And we, anon, like tired ones will rest

If we will hope and wait--a little while

Ella Bentley

MEMORIAL TO ELLEN NEWPORT ---------------------August 1968

Let us be mindful of the many things, dear to her family, friends, and community, as she gave and shared of her life. May our Heart's be bound in a close bond of sympathy family.

SUN DOWN

When my sun of life is low, when the deepening shadow's creep, Say for me before I go, "Now I lay Me down to sleep".'

I am at the journey's end, I have sown and now I reap. There are no more ways to mend--Now I lay Me down to sleep.

Nothing more to doubt or dare, nothing more to give or keep. Say for me the Children's prayer, "Now I lay me down to sleep".

Who has learned along the way--primrose path or stony sleep--More of wisdom than to say--"Now I lay me down to sleep."

What have you more wise to tell? When shadows round me creep? All is over with, all is well--"Now, I lay me down to sleep.

Bert Leston Taylor

MEMORIAL TO OSCAR MURPHY - - - - July 1969

Life is offered to each of us in different ways, yet each accepts the gift of Life from their Maker.

We place our stamp on the world, whether it is in the home, office, shop, factory or on the farm. Oscar Murphy chose the farm Life to express himself, keeping close to nature

We are a part of a ponderous network of relationships, reaching around the world, each having a voice in determining what our lives say. What the meaning of any one life is, we know only in part. Within our limited human visions we "See in a mirror dimly".

The part of Christian Faith and Hope is that there are dimensions of meaning and possibilities beyond what is seen. We belong to him who unites past, present, and future life and death in a living whole.

Blessed is he who found his work---his purpose and followed it.

MEMORIAL TO CYRUS LEROY ANDERSON -------------April 1970

Life is a combination of problems, promises and faiths. And we are challenged to make it our own. LeRoy-- chose to serve his Master at an early age, living and participating in life at its fullest, always a willing leader in the routine activities with God's help he loved life and served his maker in many ways. Daily witnessing the love of God and seeking his will in his life.

His philosophy wars to seek the common tasks reaching out to people, in church, community, putting first things first, finding life reaching far out beyond his horizons, enjoying good books, friends, teaching Sunday School, and entertainment that enlarged his mind and thinking. Also visiting shut-ins, playing his part in the adventure, the joy of doing something useful which gave meaning to his life. The joy of learning, loving someone, bringing to him a full life, a calm, a peace of mind, faith above and beyond this life.

You have made me in Thy Image, and have chosen me to be thy servant. You have assigned to me the responsibility of carrying on your mission.

MEMORIAL TO MILDRED ANDERSON -------- November 10, 1970

Mildred was born to this life on March 3, 1885. An only child of MaDell and Theodisa Day. They lived west of Meeker, there Mr. Day built the home where she has lived for many years. She taught school about six years at Browns, Cookstons, Miller, and Metz Schools--very active in community in Grange, was Chaplin of Ohio State Grange and Secretary of Montgomery Grange for many years. Took an active part in Meeker United Methodist Church and Women's Society.

LIFE'S PATH TOGETHER

We cannot speak of Mildred

Without thinking of LeRoy too,

They walked life's pathway together,

Hand in Hand in morning dew,

Days of joy so sweetly shared

And of care and sorrow.

They had helping hands and rest-less feet

For all the tasks they had to meet,

And one found herself alone-

And around God's mercy seat,

They gathered--one by one to find God's peace

For heart and Soul and Mind.

She did not have to wait to long

MEMORIAL TO IVA PETERS - - - - December 17, 1970

Iva Peters was our oldest member, into her ninety-sixth year, a gracious person. A life long residence of Meeker and Marion, Ohio, where she met the public for many years, having a host of friends.

She was an inspiration to all who knew her. So pleased and gracious when one would call. Life did not pass her by, she lived every moment of it.

She kept within her heart a place apart, where little dreams could grow. She took so much pride in herself and her home.

We live in deeds, not years in thought, not breaths,

In feeling, not in figures on a dial.

We should count time by hearts-throbs,

He most lives, Who think most feels the noblest, acts the best.

MEMORIAL TO VERN HECKER -------- December 21, 1970

Vern was a life long residence of this community. Hard working farmer. He and his wife Marina raised seven children, and six of whom are still living.

Vern liked to come to Senior Citizen Meetings. He enjoyed to sing and had a nice voice, especially Hymns.

He was reaching to his maker and we like to think God was reaching toward Vern.

God bath not promised skies always blue,

Flower-strewn pathways all our lives through,

God bath not promised Sun without rain,

Joy without sorrow, Peace without pain.

But God bath promised, strength for the day,

Rest for the weary, light for the way,

Grace for the trials, help from above,

Unfailing sympathy, undying love.

Phillip James Bailey

MAMA'S MAMA

Mama's mama, on a winter's day,

Milked the cows, and fed them hay,

Slopped the hogs, saddled the mule,

And got the children off to school

Did a washing, mopped the floors,

Washed the windows and did the chores,

Cooked a dish of home-dried fruit,

Pressed her husband's Sunday suit.

Swept the parlor, made the bed,

Baked a dozen loaves of bread.

Split some firewood, and lugged it in,

Enough to fill the kitchen bin.

Cleaned the lamps and put in oil,

Stewed some apples she thought might spoil,

Churned the butter, and baked a~cake,

Then exclaimed, "for mercy's sake".

The calves have got out of the pen,

Went out and chased them in again.

Gathered the eggs and locked the stables,

Returned to the house and set the table.

Cooked a supper that was delicious,

And afterwards washed all the dishes,

Fed the cats, sprinkled the clothes,

mended a basket full of hose.

Then opened the organ and began to play,

As the family gathered around,

What beautiful Harmony as they sang,

"When you come to the end of a perfect day".

MEMORIAL TO CORA (COON) BARNTHOUSE - - - December 19, 1972

Cora Barnthouse departed this life being a life long resident of this community. She slipped away in her sleep, as gently as she lived, she was a lovely patient in the rest home at LaRue, Ohio, where she spent her last days, cared for by nieces and nephews.

There's always one door that is open to us,

As we yield ourselves to the Master above,

Then He will take over and finish the rest,

As securely we rest in his Love.

GRANDMOTHER'S (protégée)

My Grandmother taught me how to knit

The way to handle Crochet thread,

She taught me how to brush my hair

To wear a braid around my head.

She taught me how to plant a flower

And what to do to make it grow,

She taught me how to wash and iron

And how to mend a stocking toe.

She taught me how to stand erect

And how to hold my head just right.

She bought me a parasol

To shield me from the sun so bright.

She taught me how to can fruit

She showed me how to stew and bake

I learned just how to keep the house

And how to mix an angel cake.

She taught me how to cut a dress

And how to sew the finest seam.

But more important than all that--

She taught me how to dream.

GRAND-DAD

My Grand-Dad was a sturdy man

His face a weather beaten tan.

He could not write so very well

And was hard for him to spell,

He often told about the time

He couldn't save a single dime

How he felled the forest trees

How he gathered honey from the bees. How he worked from dawn to dusk, How the corn he had to husk Ground his grain, repaired his shoes He swing the cradle and the flail, Doctored horses, cows and ewes. And walked many a mile for mail. He hewed the logs that made his house He hunted geese and rats and grouse It sorta makes me think about, Perhaps my Gramp was not a hick,

Perhaps the old days weren't so bad.

I almost wish I'd been his dad.

LADIES AID SOCIETY of the M. E. Church, SCOTT TOWN, OHIO GREETINGS

To all our friends though far and near,

We crave you attention,

So please to lend us now your ear,

While we a subject mention.

The ladies of the church will hold,

On a day not distant far,

If we have been correctly told,

A "Handkerchief Bazaar".

So this is then our plea in brief,

To help our enterprise,

You each shall send a handkerchief,

of any kind of size.

To be without a handkerchief,

You know is quite distressing,

From every state let one be sent,

Twill surely be a blessing.

Please send by December 19, 1903.

Social and Sale, December 22.

Sent by Mrs. H. W. Cookston - - Cochranton, Ohio.

WORDS TO LIVE BY

Do not complain about old age. It is a privilege denied to many.

Age is a quality of mind.

If you have left your dreams behind,

If hope is cold,

If you no longer look ahead,

If your ambitions fires are dead,

Then you are old.

But if from life you take the best,

If in life you keep the zest,

If love you held,

No matter how the years go by,

No matter how the birthdays fly,

You are not old.

"UNCLE SAM"

Of all the mighty nations in the east or in the west,

Our Glorious Yankee Nation is the greatest and the best.

We have room for all creation and for banners are unfurl.

Here's a general invitation to the peoples of the world

Then come along, come along make no delay,

Come from every nation, and from every way.

Our Land's, they are broad enough, don't you be alarmed,

For Uncle Sam is rich enough to give you each a farm.

The St. Lawrence forms our northern bounds, far as her

waters flow.

And the Rio Grand our southern bounds way down in Mexico.

From the old Atlantic Ocean, where the day begins to dawn,

Leaps across the Rocky Mountains far away in Oregon,

The South can raise the cotton and the North the corn and pork,

While New England Manufacturers do up the finer work.

For our deep and flowing waters fall, their course along the hills.

And just the thing for washing sheep, and running cotton mills.

Our Fathers gave us liberty but little did they dream,

Of the grand results, which flow along this mighty age of steam.

Four our mountains, lakes and rivers are all on a blaze of fire.

And we send the new's by lightning on the telegraphic wire.

Yes we're bound to beat the nations and our motto's "Go Ahead".

And we'll show to foreign emigrants our people are well fed.

The nations must remember, Uncle Sam is not a fool,

For the people do the voting and the children go to school.

I'd like to be a could be

If I could not be an are.

For a could-be is a may-be

With a chance for touching par.

I'd rather be a has-been

Than a might-have been, by far.

For a might-have been has never been

While a has-been, was an are.

A LAST WILL

To all those who read this book, no longer children or youth, or lover, or young men and women I leave memory.

I leave to them the pages of recalls and poems, that they may live the old days over again, freely and fully to be merry in a thousand ways.

A right to choose a star, memories of good mothers and fathers; I give to them their own place by the fire side where all the pictures that may be seen in the burning embers to enjoy, of hopes, the dreams, a memory of a living past, reflected on the sea of time, to be treasured and cherished -as a living part of our very existence.

To be changed-- "No NEVER"...

MEEKER REVIEW

We have come to the end of our REVIEW.......

Like scenes in some enchanted ISLE,

The stories take us back to days

When we were but a child.

As, leaving some grand waterfall

We linger, listening to its roar,

So memory will hallow all we've known

But know no more.

Where many were, but few remain

Of old familiar things,

Bringing them back again

Makes our hearts sings.

It has been fun to hear each report

And hear the Senior's tell,

In memories of childhood life

And adulthood as well.

Dreaming I'm a child again

Although, I know it isn't true,

Try this dreaming sometimes, we're sure

It will be a pleasure for you.

Kathryn Metz

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