EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was originally published in 2013. Prelude We used to all go to St Peter’s on Christmas Eve. None of us were Catholic, but as far as we were concerned, they put on the best show in town. If you wanted to get some depth of feeling there was no place better […]
Area History
Posted inArea History
Loudonville’s 1940 popcorn fire proved commically cruel
Loudonville’s history is built upon the ashes of many tragic fires, such as that of 1901, when nearly half of downtown Loudonville was reduced to rubble. But perhaps no fire was as comically cruel as that of 1940. On Aug. 31, 1940 around 2:20 p.m., H.G. Heffelfinger’s popcorn wagon in Central Park erupted in a […]
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Mount Vernon operator connects Civil War-era Fort Fizzle to 1930 Cleveland murder
MOUNT VERNON — Everything is connected. What I like to do for these History Knox columns is to find unexpected, forgotten threads and then follow them to see what connections can be discovered. This week’s adventure will take us from an armed insurrection during the Civil War to a mysterious murder in Depression-era Cleveland, by […]
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Ice on North Lake Park created multiple opportunities through the years
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story originally published on Richland Source in 2014. MANSFIELD — The ice on North Lake in Mansfield doesn’t do much today except keep ducks and geese out of the water, but there was a time when that ice served a broader purpose in the community, and lasted as long as two years […]
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Construction of the Mohican Historical Society was completed in 1973
In 1972 the Mohican Historical Society revealed plans for the construction of a historical museum in Loudonville. The proposal consisted of a two-story brick building, 48×60 foot, in the Greek Revival style of the 1830s. The plans included two major exhibit areas, a large meeting room, a kitchen, rest rooms, a large workroom (all of […]
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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 […]
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Then & Now: Lucas Coasters 1907
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was originally published on Richland Source in 2014. LUCAS — In 1907, if you were to take a ride on a sled you would most likely be on a piece of farm equipment behind a horse. Sleds had runners instead of wheels, and were used to haul things over the ground. […]
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Living history: 94-year-old Jeanne recalls life in Loudonville
ASHLAND — Jeanne Griffin doesn’t recite Loudonville’s history from a book. The 94-year-old volunteer at the village’s Cleo Redd Fisher Museum has lived it since 1939 when her family moved to the area from Connorsville, IN. Griffin graduated Loudonville High School in 1943 amid World War II and wrote letters to her junior prom date […]