MIFFLIN TOWNSHIP — You can’t live for 50 years without having a few stories to tell, particularly when you’ve managed to get into a few interesting adventures along the way, as I have. (Brief aside: My proudest moment is still the time I caught up my mother with my latest activities, and she shook her […]
Mark Sebastian Jordan
Posted inArea History
Gertie the Dinosaur fueled Fredericktown in the 1950s
FREDERICKTOWN — In a recent vintage photo of downtown Mount Vernon in the early 1950s, we saw the sign (if not the actual building) for a Sinclair gas station. This image from around the same time shows the Sinclair station that used to operate in Fredericktown at the intersection of South Main and Columbus Road, […]
Posted inArea History
Rich Hill trees were harvested for rich customers in 1873
CENTERBURG — I found an interesting little report in the March 26, 1873 issue of a Cleveland newspaper known as The Evening Post. It quotes a special report to a Columbus paper (the original of which I could not find) stating in that year more than 300 railcars of black walnut logs were slated to […]
Posted inArea History
Happy Halloween: The giant skull of Ghost Hill
FREDERICKTOWN — I was casting about for something spooky to write about for the season, especially since I didn’t have a big series to run this October, but I didn’t find much when I perused newspaper reports from a century ago in Knox County. Turns out that Halloween then wasn’t much different from now, except […]
Posted inLife and Culture
History Knox author pens ‘Get Busy Living: Doing Time in Shawshank’
MOUNT VERNON — In 1993, budding young writer Mark Sebastian Jordan had a once-in-a-lifetime chance to work as a background actor — an extra — in a Hollywood movie. Figuring it was something to check off on his bucket list, Jordan joined the supernumeraries for the filming of The Shawshank Redemption. Little did he think […]
Posted inArea History
Johnny Appleseed’s heroic night run tracked from Mansfield to Mount Vernon & back
MOUNT VERNON — In early September of 1813, tensions were running high along the Ohio frontier. The United States was at war with Great Britain, and through their fort at Detroit, the British were encouraging natives displaced by encroaching white settlements to attack. In reality, the Indians didn’t attack in north central Ohio until the […]
Posted inArea History
Dice game at center of 1891 squabble between Mansfield & Mount Vernon men
MANSFIELD — I love finding quaint slice-of-life stories in old area newspapers. But one I stumbled across this week left me scratching my head. It’s about a run-in between a Mount Vernon man who had opened a shooting gallery in Mansfield, but was charged with misconduct by a traveling salesman with the name Cook Walt. […]
Posted inArea History
Laylan’s Run: Tracing a dramatic dash from Mansfield to Mount Vernon during the War of 1812
MOUNT VERNON — It’s well known that frontier entrepreneur John Chapman — more famous under his nickname Johnny Appleseed — made a marathon run from Mansfield to Mount Vernon to warn settlers when hostilities broke out during the War of 1812. What is less known is the story of John Laylan, who attempted a similar […]
Posted inArea History
Part II Jim Bowsher & the Temple of Tolerance: An appreciation and study of the artist
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is Part II of a series. Part I was published on June 22 and can be found here. In 1990, historian, artist, folklorist, and poet Jim Bowsher decided to start a new project for the millennium. He had already acquired a couple of large pieces that wouldn’t fit in his Wapakoneta house, […]
Posted inArea History
Part I: Mark Jordan’s ode to iconic writer, storyteller Jim Bowsher
MANSFIELD — The telephone rang. It was a chilly late afternoon in December of 2003. I was sitting at the desk in my apartment that I rented from the Mansfield Playhouse, half of their old costume storage building. I answered the phone. It was Susie Schaus, the Playhouse secretary. “Mark, I have a message for […]