FREDERICKTOWN — I pick up postcards (whenever I can find them at an affordable price) that give us glimpses of Knox County history. On some occasions, addition information on the card can be mined to tell us more about the scene or the person who sent the card. And, sometimes, the search is a dead […]
Mark Sebastian Jordan, Knox Pages Correspondent
Posted inArea History
Fredericktown’s 1913 fire disaster was captured in postcard photo
FREDERICKTOWN — A real photo postcard from Aug. 29, 1913, gives us a glimpse of the fire that wiped out a block of Fredericktown’s business district that day. The day had been a typical enough Friday, busy with shoppers coming and going from the Cassell grocery store, two meat markets, two barber shops, and even […]
Posted inArea History
Short, rack, & sides in Fredericktown
FREDERICKTOWN — This business establishment is a bit of genius ranking up there with the bar in Mount Vernon that used to be known as “The Office.” Here, at Thomas R. Huggins’ establishment in Fredericktown, a gentleman could head out of the house announcing that he was going to get a good, proper haircut … […]
Posted inArea History
The Civil War’s “Fighting McCooks” had local connections
GAMBIER — The Civil War tore the United States apart. Many families and friends were split on ideological lines, some supporting the North, others the South. But there was one family that went down in legend for their unusual level of commitment and unanimity in the conflict: “The Fighting McCooks” contributed a total of 15 […]
Posted inArea History
A dare led to an early air disaster in Sparta
SPARTA — Back when I used to labor away in the news mines at the Mount Vernon News, I always enjoyed the assignments of covering small-town festivals. All you had to do was show up, observe, get a picture, and then drive — slowly — back to the newsroom. I always volunteered for the furthest […]
Posted inArea History
From Kodaks to sleepwalkers, Fink’s Drug Store was central in Fredericktown life
Ask any old timer about life in Fredericktown and Fink’s drugstore will surface sooner or later. The store, located at 115 North Main Street, was a local fixture for many years, run by Charles F. Fink and later by his son, Norman. Charles was born in Olivesburg, Pennsylvania in 1877. He attended Ohio Northern University […]
Posted inArea History
Finding the farm where the murderer Ceely Rose was born
What do stories matter? In a world where we’re busy trying to head off contagion and its associated economic problems, maybe stories don’t seem so important. But I’ve made it my life’s work to tell the stories of other people’s lives, in hopes that from time to time it sheds some light on what life […]
Posted inArea History
Knuck Harris, Mount Vernon’s forgotten founding father
MOUNT VERNON — Not a lot of people know that one of the founding fathers of Mount Vernon was a black man. Enoch Harris, better known as ‘Knuck,’ was a pioneer of the town — and quite a dealer in real estate. At one point in Mount Vernon’s early history, Harris owned about one-sixth of […]
Posted inArea History
Rare photo postcard from Fredericktown Day in 1914
FREDERICKTOWN — It pays to keep a sharp eye out for potential material for a local history column. One recent Sunday, after I led a true crime bus tour in Cleveland, I stopped at a postcard show being held at the VFW in Brookpark, Ohio, on the way home. I found one vendor who had […]
Posted inArea History
Butler bicycle went on wheels from Ohio to Nebraska to Missouri and back
BUTLER — There’s nothing better than poking around in small town museums. While many of them share the same sort of items on display — local school artifacts, pictures of once-important people, log-cabin furniture — the best museums always have touches of unexpected local color. When I was recently giving a talk to the historical […]