Mary Rodgers, President of the Clintonville Historical Society, did some wonderful research on the Balser Hess family graves at Union Cemetery, in response to a reader’s inquiry about this post. Apparently the reader believed that Balser Hess’s wife is not buried in this location despite the tombstone.

From Mary Rodgers:

There are lots of burials on the Hess property prior to the establishment of the Union Cemetery Association in 1847. The Association purchased the Hess burial ground in 1862. The only known records of the early burials are the tombstones. Unfortunately, there are lots of illegible and missing stones.

Union Cemetery and the Historical Society believe Balser to be the earliest burial. The family arrived in Ohio around 1799. They had a child (John) born in Hopetown in 1799. He lived to adulthood. Attached is a family history that was done many years ago by Frank Hess. It states that Balser was the first burial on the family farm. I confirmed that John was the last of George’s children; she didn’t find any grandchildren prior to his death in 1806.

Balser’s wife (Mary Eva) is represented on the tombstone. We have no reason to believe that she is not buried at Union. The property was still in the family’s control at the time of her death. The tombstone that is in the cemetery is not the original. It was lost to the test of time and replaced by the family.

John was the last child to be born to Balser and Mary Eve. No mention of “lost infants” for that couple.

The only child of Balser who married prior to his death was his daughter Mary Ann. She married Henry Cryder before the Hesses moved to Franklinton. She and Henry ultimately moved to Delaware, OH (then to Illinois) but I don’t see anything that would suggest they had a child that would have been buried on the family homestead in Franklin Co. prior to her father’s death. At that time, they lived in New Hope, OH.

[Images courtesy of Mary Rodgers]

Last November, I posted a photo of a drugstore that carried a sign, “Bob is Home”. The photo spurred Clintonville Historical Society president Mary Rodgers to do some sleuthing. Here’s what she learned:

We have a photo in the Clintonville Historical Society’s archive that shows a storefront door with a sign that reads: “Closed Today –Bob is home after 5 years and 21 days in the Army for prescriptions call LA.5462 or LA. 9170”. I thought I might try to find out more about veteran “Bob”. From the sign, I know his name is Bob and that is most likely short for Robert. I know he served for 5 years and 21 days in the Army. I know this photo appeared in the Booster, a local newspaper founded in 1933 (post WWI-pre WWII). I went to Ancestry.com and searched for first name “Robert”, lived in Clinton Twp., Franklin County, OH with military service from 1941-1945 (i.e. WWII). The sign also told me that someone close to Bob owned a pharmacy (“for prescriptions call…”). I added pharmacy to my search. The top search results included Robert Ranck. Could this be the right solider? I went to the Columbus Metropolitan Library’s research site and pulled up the Columbus Dispatch newspaper. I typed in “Bob Ranck”. I found a newspaper article from November 14, 1945 that read as follows: “Druggists Back From Service Are Honored–Seven druggists and the son of another druggist who recently returned from the service were honored by the Servall Druggists Alliance at a dinner-dance at the Beechwold Tavern . Sgt. Bob Ranck, son of Paul Ranck, Oakland Park Av and High St. came home after five years in the service and his father promptly closed his store for the day…”.

Mystery solved! Jesse Paul Ranck owned the Oakland Park Pharmacy–where Shim’s is today. The Ranck family lived at 234 Erie Road. Mr. Ranck was very involved in the Clintonville community. He loved nature and was an avid hunter and fisherman. In 1959, the Columbus Dispatch reported that then retired Pharmacist Ranck continued to visit the shop at Oakland Park and High. On one particular day, May 8, 1959, he told the story of a mother raccoon who had brought her babies down the chimney of his home. He was worried that the kits would become too heavy for her to remove. His son, Bob Ranck, returned from the war and attended The Ohio State University. He graduated from the School of Dentistry. For many years, his dental practice was above the Oakland Park Pharmacy. According to his 2012 obituary, he ultimately received the military rank of Captain and was awarded the Bronze Star for his heroic service to our country.

[Image is from The Booster, and courtesy of the Hollenback Collection at the Clintonville Historical Society. Mary’s article was published in the May 2020 CHS Newsletter.]

At a recent CHS meeting, Glenn Williams and Stuart Smith shared a song commissioned by the Clintonville Community Band for its 20th anniversary. Snapshots of Clintonville premiered on Oct 1, 2005. It is 11-minute 47-second duration.

Snapshots of Clintonville‘s composer was Barry E. Kopetz, who was Director of Bands and Professor of Conducting at Capital University at that time. Richard Burkart was the Clintonville Community Band’s director. The band has kept a great archive of its history; the program for this concert is here and the announcement of the commissioning of the piece is here.

The individual movements are
1) Main Theme
2) Gothic Gateway Entrance
3) Glen Echo Ravine
4) Bill Moose – Last Of The Wyandots
5) Dance
6) From The Banks Of The Olentangy
7) Underground Railroad
8) Columbus and Worthington Plank Road
9) Weisheimer House
10) McKendree Cemetery
11) Main Theme

The band has made a huge contribution to the community, by providing concerts year after year for more than 30 years. That doesn’t mean they don’t need your support and donations! I recommend going to their web site and donating today.

Are you still reading this? what are you waiting for? Donate!

Wendy Bayer found these great photos and generously shared them with us. The photos show Big Tom’s Restaurant (or Big Tom’s Drive-In Restaurant), which occupied the southeast corner of North High and East Jeffrey from 1956 – 1959. Big Tom’s was owned by Thos H Fetty, who lived with his wife Ella M. at 353 Clinton St.

Here is Big Tom and his wife Ella’s marriage certificate:

Tom Fetty died in 1995.

Here’s some history on the location, based on the Columbus Metropolitan Library’s collection of business directories:

• –In 1950 the address did not exist.
• –From 1953 until 1956 it was Hi-Jeffrey Sandwich Shop, owned by Pete Freemas. (In April 1954 it was called Hi-Jeffrey Sandwich Shop, presumably for its corner location. By June 1954 it was also called Pete’s Drive-In. Pete passed away from a heart attack in April 1955; here’s his obituary.)
• –From 1956 to 1959 it was Big Tom’s Restaurant. There’s an April 1959 Dispatch article about an attack on “the diner’s operator Donald Acree.”
• –In August 1957, January 1958, and July 1959, there were attempts by “owner Elizabeth F. Baker” to sell or auction the restaurant including furnishings and equipment. I’m not sure whether Elizabeth F. Baker had been Pete Freemas’s wife Betty, or whether she had some other connection to the property.
• –By 1960 it had become Chicken Delight Restaurant, owned by Richard A. Potts (& Forrest W. Womeldorff). It was still Chicken Delight in 1961, but I was unable to check additional years.
• –By 1966 it had become a Kut n’ Kurl Beauty Salon.

According to Wendy, Frank B. and Ola Faye Hyatt owned the parcel for a short time; they are buried in Walnut Grove Cemetery. Orr Zimmerman of Olympic Pool fame also owned the parcel… Some neighborhood folks say that it was called “Corky’s” at one time and that the “owner lived down on W. Jeffrey”; I didn’t find record of that. Someone else thought it became Ricardi’s Italian Restaurant, but my research says that Ricardi’s had an address of 4874 North High, just north of this.

Wendy Bayer found the photos on the MLS Real Estate Cards collection that Carriage Trade Realty and the Columbus Metropolitan library uploaded. Nick Taggart of the Columbus Metropolitan Library Local History and Genealogy Desk furnished the Dispatch articles.

[Images courtesy of Wendy Bayer, the Columbus Metropolitan Library, Nick Taggart at the Columbus Metropolitan Library, and The Columbus Dispatch.]

Wendy Bayer came across a matchbook for the Beechwold BBQ at 4848 N. High. Notice the address?

Beechwold Barbecue, owned by Anthony Delewese, was located at 4848 North High from the day it opened, March 27, 1926, until an overheated furnace caused a fire during the last week of January, 1934.

Four months after the fire (May 29, 1934), Mr Delewese reopened his restaurant as Beechwold Tavern, at 4784 North High, where Mozart’s is today. (He sold it to Henri Boyd in 1938, who in turn renamed it the Beechwold Restaurant.)

Mr. Delewese–assuming I have the right “Anthony Delewese”–died September 13, 1975.

Just to finish off the “fire” theme:

Oh and remember when we abbreviated Ohio as just “O.”? State abbreviations were standardized to 2 characters in 1963, to make room for zipcodes, as most addressing equipment at the time could accommodate only 23 characters (including spaces) in the bottom line of the address.

[Matchbook image courtesy of Wendy Bayer. Dispatch clippings researched by Nick Taggart, librarian par excellence of the Columbus Metropolitan Library’s Local History and Genealogy Desk. ]

Admittedly, this is a not a great image of the casino at Olentangy Park! But it is the only one I have and so I’m glad to have it. It is from The Book of Ohio.

I do not know what the gambling consisted of at the park.

[Image courtesy of Galen Gonser]

This little gem was once the garden house at Edgewater, summer home of Harvey and Emma Legg Zinn. (Harvey was founder of the Zinn Lumber Company.) It dates to the 1920s. Zinn’s property at the west end of Kenworth was eventually subdivided and several years ago an additional new house was built on the property.

During construction of the new house, the builder, Kevin Clausen, used the garden house as an office for the building project (shown here in 2014).

Upon the house’s completion, the new homeowners, Gary and Kathy Flynn, donated this lovely shed to Clintonville Resource Center (CRC) instead of demolishing it. Thanks to the Clintonville Historical Society, the American Public Gardens Association, builder Kevin Clausen and some hearty volunteers, it was moved to its new home at the CRC Midgard Community Garden (aka Midgarden). The foundation work was completed in 2017 with the help of Tim Beachy and Anderson Concrete.

This building enables CRC staff and volunteers to collect rainwater for irrigation, start new plant seedlings on site, retrieve seeds for new plantings and provide a space for educational and informational gatherings. And of course, it adds a shedful of pretty to the landscape.

This is a Columbus Dispatch article, dated September 27, 1897, about an almost-epidemic of diphtheria. Though you can zoom in, the print is tiny, so I’m providing the text here:

“Dread Diphtheria Attacks Several Families in Clintonville.

“People in the Maple Grove and Clintonville school districts are very much alarmed over the appearance of dread diphtheria. The wells are all low and the country is as dry as a bone. The cold nights and hot days make a combination that is unhealthy to say the least; and added to this is the dust, minute seeds and other things blown by the wind and irritating to nose and throat. At present there are seven cases right on the pike between Clintonville and the Maple Grove switch.

“The school directors are thinking strongly of closing the schools before the disease becomes an epidemic.

“At Clintonville three little girls in the Snapp family have the dread throat trouble. At the switch, the Armstrong twins are ill and a child named Hardin is also down with the disease. There is another case over east and parents are becoming seriously alarmed. All the infected houses have been placarded.”

According to Wikipedia and the CDC, diphtheria is an infection caused by the bacterium Corynebacterium diphtheriae. Signs and symptoms vary from mild to severe. They usually start two to five days after exposure. Symptoms often come on fairly gradually, beginning with a sore throat and fever. In severe cases, a grey or white patch develops in the throat; this can block the airway and create a barking cough as in croup. The neck may swell in part due to enlarged lymph nodes. Complications may include myocarditis, inflammation of nerves, kidney problems, and bleeding problems due to low levels of platelets. Nowadays, children are vaccinated against diphtheria in combination with tetanus and pertussis.

I really have no idea what this issue was all about! It’s an editorial cartoon from The Booster. Back in the late 1960s, Oakland Manor was the name of an apartment complex (with a swimming pool!) at 42-50 West Oakland Ave, 2 blocks north of Lane Ave. between North High and Neil Avenue. Currently I find an “Oakland Manor” on 1871 Oakland Park, in North Linden.

We may not know what the precise issue was, but we can guess that some scofflaw building owner tried to circumvent zoning regulations, and the community was not happy. Back in “the day”, The Booster played a very strong Clintonville advocacy role and this was undoubtedly an example.

[Image courtesy of the Hollenback Collection at the Clintonville Historical Society.]

Gus Grener’s was located at 2189 North High Street (near the corner of North High and Norwich). According to the 1949 city directory, Augustus F. Grener sold “GE refrigerators, Bendix home laundry washers, radios, Sohio products, Willard batteries, and Goodyear tires.” What a marketing concept!

[Image is from the Hollenback Collection of the Clintonville Historical Society.]