Joseph Wilton Smith & Ancestors
Joseph Wilton Smith IV recently contacted me. Joe's ancestors owned a house at the southeast corner of East North Broadway and North High Streets, perhaps where the Cochran House was before it was demolished...or--as Mary Rodgers speculated in the May 2020 CHS Newsletter-- possibly that very house. Joe has kindly sent along an image that includes several maps: 1) An 1875 map of the legal division of Joseph Wilson Smith's farmland in Clintonville, Ohio to his heirs 2) A modern map extracted from the website of the Franklin County Auditor that outlines these lands in orange over the current Clintonville [...]
Clinton Chapel Cemetery
Joe Smith alerted me that part of the Good home, at 45 East California, (just east of the former Southwick Good & Fortkamp Funeral Chapel) is on the market. You can see it here. The photo accompanying this post is a recent satellite view with the 1910 Baist map overlaid. Joe has asked me to post the following message: For the first time in 80 years, the eastern half of the old Clinton Chapel Cemetery is for sale. (The rest of the former cemetery is under the BFA school parking lot.) I would love to buy the land (have the [...]
How Clintonville Electric Has Changed!
The buildings along North High Street between Brighton and West North Broadway have engendered a lot of interest in recent years...and again recently as the final Clintonville Electric building is slated to come down. Joe Smith created a terrific animated GIF of photos showing how the span of buildings along 3361-3379 North High Street has changed. Click on the image above to watch. Thank you Joe! [Recent photos courtesy of Google Street View; pre-1980 photos are from the Columbus Metropolitan Library. Animation and all the labor involved are courtesy of Joe Smith.]
Rathbone Cemetery and Clinton Chapel Cemetery
Joe Smith has an intriguing theory about Clintonville's elusive Rathbone Cemetery. I think it's interesting; what do you think? From Joe: I came across some maps that the Works Progress Administration (WPA) did from 1935-1943, as part of FDR's "New Deal" programs. One Clinton Township map particularly caught my eye. It was named (by them) the "John Rathbone Cemetery." There's is a link to that particular map on an Ohio History Connection affiliated website (link here). To date, I have only found two other websites that make reference to that cemetery by name: dev.clintonvillehistory.org/ website; FCGHS website. I have spent [...]
Good News, Bad News
On the bright side: Clintonville Historical Society has erected a new plaque for the Clinton Chapel and for John and Laura Olive (Wilson) Smith near the corner of East North Broadway and North High. It gives us pause to remember slaves and slavery in the Unites States and to give thanks to the people who fought against it. On the bad news side: it's very unfortunate, from my perspective, that 12 staff were recently laid off from Ohio's Historic Preservation Office. The federal government mandates that every state must have this sort of office, and to accompany that mandate they [...]
A History of the North Methodist Church, by Ruth Ellen (Grove) Rutherford
Joe Smith kindly shared this item with me, after discovering it at the Columbus Metropolitan Library. It's A History of the North Methodist Church, Clinton Chapel, North Columbus by Ruth Ellen (Grove) Rutherford. Ruth Ellen (Grove) Rutherford [1891-1980], a long-time area resident, wrote the history in 1970. The book includes both some history of the Clinton Chapel Cemetery, some information about the old Beers/Piatt log cabin and its move to 40 E. Norwich Ave, and info about the Underground Railroad activities of Pyrum and Polly Hunt. Joe was pleased to see mentions of his own ancestors including the Hunts--Joe's grandfather [...]
3070 N High Street
Here is an amazing photograph of High Street, given to me by Stu Koblentz, who found this image in an old student thesis by Forest Ira Blanchard. The photo looks north, taken around 3070 North High. On the right (east) side of High Street I believe is the house of Mathias Armbruster, which later became the Southwick Good Fortkamp Funeral Chapel at 3100 North High Street at Weber and High. I'm told that some gravestones from the old burial ground are visible on the right. Check my book, Clintonville and Beechwold, for a better photo of this house. You can [...]