Area History

JEROMESVILLE — Until the development and widespread distribution of the polio vaccine (1955 through the 1960s), infantile paralysis (polio) was one of the most feared and highly infectious diseases in America. Some have compared it to the panic HIV/AIDS would cause in the 1980s. But in this instance, a single case of polio could shut […]

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story originally published on Richland Source in 2014. There is a certain kind of genius behind the design of the historic Ohio State Reformatory (OSR). That sounds like an idle statement, but it’s really not because if you research the architecture of the old castle, and search beyond the architect into the […]

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was originally published on Richland Source in 2014. It’s a thrill when the Circus comes to town … doesn’t matter whether it was in 1907 or 2014. In 1907 the John Sparks Circus made a grand entrance into Butler with a little parade to show off their calliope and their elephant. […]

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 […]

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story originally published on Richland Source in 2014. When someone’s paintings are bringing increasingly higher prices long after their death, it is certain that the artist — during their lifetime — was able to capture the very soul of the world in which they lived in such a way that it still […]

LOUDONVILLE — If you were a fan of crossword puzzles in the 1960s, and found yourself stuck on such ambiguous definitions as “Dickens character,” “African boat,” “oleoresin” and “Peleg’s father” you had Loudonville resident George Frank to thank for your misery. George, who suffered from multiple sclerosis, designed thousands of crossword puzzles that were printed […]

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was originally published on Richland Source in 2014. The man who established this town was Robert Bell, and so its proper name is Bellville — but there was a postmaster a generation later who thought the place would have a little more class if it was in French: Belle Ville, as […]