David Beers
Wednesday, November 5th, 2008
David Beers was another early pioneer with an exciting life story of having been captured and released by the Native Americans. Beers came to Ohio in 1802. Descendents of David Beers still live in the area to the present day. (Photo courtesy of Terry Miller)
Beers had a log house near the intersection of Dodridge and North High Street. The cabin still exists but has been moved to Norwich Avenue. This photo appeared in the December 29, 1904 Dispatch, on the house’s centennial. The people included friends, relatives, and associates of the cabin’s next owner, Conn Baker, and they were reminiscing with him about early Columbus and marking the 100th anniversary of the cabin after the its move and reassembly to E. Norwich.
The Beers family operated a mill which existed until the early twentieth century. For many years the father of the well-known poet John James Piatt operated it. The future poet spent his boyhood days playing about the mill, and some say that the impressions made by its surroundings found expression in his work. The mill was considered to be one of the most picturesque spots in Ohio. Built around 1810, the mill burned in 1902.
There are still vestiges of the mill (foundation stones) below North Street, at the river.
The reason for this gathering is unknown, but it includes several Beers descendants (and likely many who are not related) and was taken about 1905, probably at Olentangy Park. (Photos courtesy of Marty Cottrill)
One of the oldest families in Clintonville is the Whipp Family (sometimes spelled Whip). They owned a farm, and a couple of stands along High Street that had big large orange signs advertising a refreshing drink consisting of freshly squeezed orange juice. The Whipps may have been the first owners of the mill located just north of Henderson Road and the Olentangy River. Here is a picture of the Whipp family circa 1889: George, Oscar, Everett, Laura, Cora, and Mabel. (Photo courtesy of Sue Gallogly)
Pearl Fisher lived at 129 West Pacemont for nearly 70 years until her death in 1970 at age 82. [The house has since been torn down.] She moved there as a young girl, when Pacemont (then called Jason Avenue), was a gravel road with houses far apart and the mailman traveled his route in a buggy. There was a spring on the West Pacemont farm which her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Fisher, owned. They sold this spring water in bottles to residents all over Clintonville, delivering it by horse-drawn wagon. They stored the bottles in a little shed attached to the house. –from The Booster, January 4, 1978.






In 1918, after serving in WWI, Tom Pletcher came to Columbus hoping to find a job as a barber. Jimmy Kinnaird, a pharmacist at the corner of Brighton and North High Street, rented Pletcher a store room at the rear of the pharmacy. Pletcher ran the barbershop on Brighton (above) from 1919, and in 1921 moved to larger space at 3311 North High Street. After becoming ill, he sold the business in 1943 to a long-time employee named Bill Morgan. The barber shop moved again, in 1980 to 3325 North High Street. (Photo courtesy of the Clintonville Historical Society)
We tend to think of the use of prefabricated buildings for temporary quarters a new idea, but it seems to be as old as our township schools. I have found pictures of old World War I military barracks, and also portable voting booths, used for schools all over Clintonville. Our Lady of Peace used both types of buildings. Glenmont Elementary School began life as a cluster of portable schools. Clinton Elementary School handled overcrowding with temporary buildings. Shown here are some portable voting booths at the old tile factory along Arcadia (where North High School presently stands). (Photo courtesy of Wallie Palmer)