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 area streets. And,

3) The property lines from the 1910 Baist map superimposed on the 2023 satellite view of E.N Broadway and N High.

Joe writes:

I am a direct descendent of three early Clintonville settlers: Thomas Bull, Deacon John Smith, and Pirum Hunt.

I am named after my grandfather, who was named after his grandfather, who was named (sort of) after his father, Joseph Wilson Smith. His wife, Catharine Gray (Piatt) Smith was my third great-grandmother. For the past three months, I have been working closely with Mary Rodgers to sponsor a historical marker honoring my ancestors and their contributions to early Clintonville. My great-grandfather was Roy Ripley Smith, who lived at 145 W. Royal Forest Blvd. in Beechwold. My dad told me Roy also owned a farm that later became part of Highbanks Metro Park.

In January 2024, Joe Smith gave a presentation to the Clintonville Historical Society about his ancestors, and most especially his ancestor Deacon John Smith. John was a churchman and also an abolitionist in our area. Joe’s presentation is also a great example of what you can do if you set about researching your family’s history.

Joe’s presentation can be found here. The handout for that presentation can be found here.

Thanks Joe!

[Thanks to Joe Smith for sharing his research and his presentation. He welcomes additional information and input on his research, and extends his thanks in advance. Contributors to his research include Sharon Hendershot, Nancy J. Pendleton, Mary Rodgers, Elizabeth Renker, and Kathie Smith Brzoska.]

Here’s a very sad story about one of our Clintonville residents from former times. James Welsh, commonly called Jerry, was a dairyman along High Street. His farm burned on January 27, 1897, and Jerry was himself badly burned in the fire.  Jerry survived the fire, however, and he eventually died on Sept 5, 1905 at the age of 72 or 73 of dropsy (edema, or heart failure). He was originally from Ireland, was a Civil War veteran, and is buried in Mount Calvary Cemetery.

There’s no record of his having owned a farm on High Street or in Clinton Township, so perhaps he leased the farm land. When he died, Jerry lived at 34 Richards Road with his wife Bridget; I presume he lived close to his dairy farm. The couple also lived with a lad named Fay Osborn; Osborn is likely the 14-year old boy who was also at the scene of the 1897 fire and who was credited with saving the 20 cows.

Dairy Barn Burned
Cows Saved With Difficulty From the Flames–Loss $900.

The big dairy barn of Jerry Welsh on High street above Clintonville was totally destroyed by fire Tuesday afternoon, together with a stock of fodder. In the barn at the time the blaze was discovered were about 2[0] cows and some horses. All the animals were finally removed though Welsh and his neighbors had a lively time of it taking the frantic beasts from the fiery furnace.

Luckily there was little, if any, wind and the other outbuildings and the house were saved.

There was no means of fighting the fire, and all that could be done was to run to the neighbors’ for buckets of water to pour upon the house. About [6]00 tons of millet was burned. The loss on the property will be about $900.

Nearly a Tragedy
Was Fire at Jerry Welch’s
Dairy Barn

Mr. Welch Himself Badly Burned And Narrowly Escaped Death 

There came near being a tragedy at the fire above Clintonville Tuesday afternoon.

It will be remembered that Jerry Welch’s big dairy barn was totally destroyed, as stated in The Dispatch at the time.

It seems that Welch, who is quite an old man, was in the barn when the fire broke out, but became so excited that had it not been for the efforts of a 14-year-old boy who was in an adjoining field gathering fodder, over 20 cows would have been burned. The lad released the maddened animals just as the roof of the structure fell in.

All this time Welch was working heroically at the other end of the barn endeavoring to save the horses. In some way he slipped and fell right into the awful furnace. He was dragged therefrom by a neighbor who had hastened to the scene. Welch’s hair was singed, his hand and face badly scorched, and he would have burned to death had not the neighbor pulled him out and extinguished the fire by rolling the victim in the snow.

Cindy at the Columbus Metropolitan Library shared most of the above details about Mr. Welsh with us. She writes: “I was able to find a little more information about Jerry Welsh. First, I believe the name was actually Welsh, not Welch [as in the 2nd article above]…I am attaching Mr. Welsh’s obituary. I was able to find him on the 1900 census with his wife, and it looks like he was a veteran of the Civil War because I found a grave registration card that matches up with his grave information in Mount Calvary Cemetery. Unfortunately, I was not able to find that he owned any property in Clinton Township. I checked maps, including a 1895 plat map that has landowners names on it. I also checked deed indexes on the recorder’s site for that time frame for both grantors and grantees and still did not find anything. It is possible he was renting the land that the barn was on.”

I do love our Columbus Metropolitan Library System and especially appreciate the Local History and Genealogy staff. THANK YOU CINDY!

[Newspaper articles from the Columbus Evening Dispatch Jan 27, 1897 and the Columbus Dispatch Thursday Jan 28, 1897. Research ny Cindy at the Columbus Metropolitan Library Local History & Genealogy Desk.]

Last month I provided a glimpse of James Chesnut, who lived at 3338 N. Wall Street. James Chesnut was involved in significant litigation with the North Broadway developers and neighbors. Though last month I said James appears to have been irascible, I’d certainly be that way too if this happened to me. From the Dispatch:

Whew!
James Chesnut Sues North Broadway Residents
Wants Big Damages and Their Sewerage System Declared a Nuisance

James Chesnut, who owns a 20-acre tract along High Street near North Broadway, this morning brought a damage and injunction suit against the owners of property and residents of North Broadway addition. The residences in the addition run their waste water into private sewers, which empty into an open ditch that runs onto the Chesnut land near the owner’s residence. Chesnut’s purpose is to have the courts declare this sewer system a nuisance and order it abated. He says the filth from the vaults, stables, and wasteways runs down near his house, polluting the water in the ditch, where he used to water his stock; that the winds carry noxious and offensive vapors and stenches into his residence, annoys his family, and is a continual menace to their life and health, besides decreasing the value of the premises. He sues for $6,000 damages, $1,000 of this amount because of the pollution of the ditch water on his land. He wants an injunction against the use of the ditch for sewer purposes…

[From Columbus Dispatch (published as Columbus Evening Dispatch) March 21, 1883 page 7.]

A couple months later, the North Broadway developers issued a rejoinder:

A Tart Answer
That Will Scarcely Turn Away Wrath
Filed by James M. Loren in the North Broadway Sewage Case

Some time ago James Chesnut, who lives on High Street north of North Columbus, filed a suit against the owners and residents of North Broadway dwellings and lots to prevent the use of an open ditch for sewer purposes, on the ground that it created a nuisance on the plaintiff’s premises. It was claimed that the suit, if successful, would compel the abandonment of the entire sewage system of North Broadway. Mr. James M. Loren this morning filed an answer, in which he claims that all the sewage from the houses on North Broadway passes into two large cisterns located at least 1,000 feet from Mr. Chesnut’s residence, and that no bad odor can come from the cisterns. About five years ago, Mr. Chesnut himself put in pipes draining his vaults and stables into the open trench. Some time ago, Mr. Loren says, Mr. Chesnut offered to sell him all his premises except the house and yard at a certain price, but he refused to take the offer, and then Mr. Chesnut for the first time objected to the North Broadway sewer system.

[From Columbus Dispatch (published as Columbus Evening Dispatch) May 20, 1883, page 6.]

Apparently Loren’s response was not accepted by the courts, for this article followed along in 1897:

North Broadway Sewage Causing Trouble

About a year ago James Chestnut, a farmer who lives between North Columbus and Clintonville, brought proceedings against property owners on North Broadway for damages on account of the sewer system which drains property along North Broadway. He sued for something over $4,000 damages. The case went to the circuit court and that tribunal issued an injunction preventing the use of the sewer system until it was remedied.

It seemed that when the sewers up there were constructed they were left in such shape that they dumped the refuse of the vaults and houses onto land either belonging to Mr. Chestnut or so close to his house that it created a nuisance. The injunction issued by the circuit court was made permanent and still stands. It now appears that the sewers are still in use and it is said that Mr. L. G. Addison, the attorney who represented Mr. Chestnut, has notified the people of North Broadway that unless they comply with the order of court he will have contempt proceedings instituted against them. One trouble which Mr. Chestnut’s attorney labors under is that the residents of North Broadway change quite often and it thus becomes necessary to notify the new comers of the […] order of court. New comers who are in ignorance of the facts, of course, cannot be held for a violation of an order of court of which they are in ignorance.

[From Columbus Dispatch (published as Columbus Evening Dispatch) Monday August 23, 1897 page 6.]

Occasionally, the name of a local figure pops up with frequency, and one forms an image of, well may I say, an irascible neighbor? James Chesnut (often spelled “Chestnut”) is one of those guys; see other posts about him here.

Who was this guy, anyway? James Chesnut was born in Ireland on May 1, 1820, and he died at age 85 on May 26, 1905. Census records say James was a “machine sawyer,” “works in coal factory”, or “foreman and tool shop”. He seems to have owned 20 acres on North High Street. His wife was Christiana McEwan (b. Dec 24, 1825, d. Jul 14 1891). (One source says “Ewing” but I believe that’s wrong.) She is buried with James in Greenlawn Cemetery. Some census records say Christiana was born in England or Ireland, and there’s also a record that says her father lived in Ridgeway, PA.

James and Christiana had a daughter (one census record says “adopted daughter”), Fannie, who was born around 1854/55. She lived with her parents and seems to have remained single. She continued to live in the North High Street (now Wall Street) house through 1910, but by 1914 she’d moved to 2103 Summit Street. She lived there until her death in March 1932; she died at age 78 in University Hospital of injuries suffered when she was hit by a taxi the previous December. (Her obituary also names a sister, Jennie Reid, who lived in Bridgeport Connecticut.)

I love the Chesnut house, still in existence at 3338 N. Wall Street.

Last April 2021, I posted an article by Clintonville Historical Society President Mary Rodgers, about the Clintonville Woman’s Club. The club was built on land that was once owned by a “horse trader” named E. A. Fuller.

I recently found some old advertisements for horses–bought, sold, stabled–at E.A. Fullers Farm. Here’s one of them…

[From the Columbus Dispatch (published as Columbus Evening Dispatch) October 27, 1876, page 1]

(I’m glad it was not a sale of dead stock.)

There are many more ads; here’s one for stabling horses near E.A. Fulller’s farm.

[From the Columbus Dispatch (published as Columbus Evening Dispatch) November 12, 1877 page 4]

The Dispatch has lots of other ads as well, especially from 1902, for stabling horses at the Fuller farm.

They’re great reminders of Clintonville’s agricultural past.

[Thanks to the Columbus Metropolitan Library for making the Digital Columbus Dispatch available and searchable online on CML’s web site.]

If you have not yet joined the Clintonville Historical Society, well, you ought to! Mary Rodgers sends out an interesting monthly newsletter that is chock-a-block full of good articles. In the October 2017 issue, she penned an article about Clintonville’s first post office.

Celebrating 170 years: The first Post Office
by Mary Rodgers
October 2017

We celebrate Clintonville’s birthday on September 13, 1847. That is the day that a post office opened using the name “Clintonville”. We know that the small town between Columbus and Worthington existed prior to the date but because the town was never formally platted, we do not have an alternative formal start date. On September 13, 1847, James Ferguson was appointed postmaster at the Clintonville Post Office. It was the practice at the time to locate the post office in a business operated by the postmaster. The names of the offices were determined by the postmaster and were usually associated with the area that they were located, the postmaster’s name or the postmaster’s business. In 1933, The Booster printed a photo of the post office. That photo is of a rug store! Mr. Ferguson was a blacksmith. Maybe he had a side operation?

Or, maybe this photo captured the building where Clintonville’s second postmaster set up operation? Harmon “Hammer” Houck was Clintonville’s second postmaster. He reigned from November of 1852 to April of 1854. The 1850 census lists him as a peddler. That might be consistent with a rag rug dealer.

James Ferguson reclaimed the position of postmaster in April of 1854. He and family originated in Lancaster Co. Pennsylvania. He was the son of John and Susanah (Hood) Ferguson. James was married to Hannah Murray around 1824. The Fergusons, at least three generations, came to Ohio in 1843. They arrived by wagon (note: Lancaster County, Pa is the birthplace of the Conestoga wagon!). Based on area maps, James purchased his Clintonville property from Alanson Bull. A question would be: How did Ferguson become aware of Bull’s interest in building a town? Did Bull run advertisements in Eastern newspapers of the time? That is a question for another day.

According to the 1850 Census, James Ferguson owned 5 acres of land, a home, two milk cows, a beef cow, five pigs, and 100 bushels of corn. His livestock was valued a $98, his machinery at $41 and his overall estate at $950. His estate was higher in value then his neighbors with more land. Perhaps that is an indication of its geographical position “in town”? Hannah Murray Ferguson, James’s wife, was a Quaker. Quakers were known to be involved in the Underground Railroad and the Fergusons are a part of the Clintonville Underground Railroad story. The Ferguson sons Joseph, John and Samuel all served in the Civil War. His son Joseph died in action in Perryville, KY. According to K. Haefner, 3rd great granddaughter of Hannah and James Ferguson, when sons John and Samuel returned from the war, the family moved to Findlay, OH. It would seem that John and Samuel met a number of men from Hancock County while serving. Those men told stories of the land and those tales impressed these young men. In Findlay, Samuel and John pursed wagon making. The shop they opened remained in operation beyond 1911.

Mary Rodgers has written a very nice article about the Clintonville Woman’s Club.

The Clintonville Woman’s Club: The Women Before the Clubhouse
by Mary Rodgers

I was recently asked to speak at an evening meeting of the Clintonville Woman’s Club. Specifically, I was asked to speak on the subject of the history of the land that the Clubhouse occupies. I have always understood that the Clubhouse was located on land from the old Fuller Farm. I was surprised to learn more about the “Fuller” family.

In the 1820s, John Rathbone sold farm lot 5 to Edward Amaziah Stanley. Using today’s landmarks, that land would have been bounded on the east by Indianola Avenue, on the west by the river, on the south by roughly Torrence Road and on the north by roughly Overbrook Drive. When Mr. Stanley died in 1862, his land holdings were passed down to his children. Harriet Marie Stanley (aka Hattie) was one of those children. She was born in Connecticut in 1831. Based on the extensive land holdings throughout Ohio, I believe her father Edward was an Ohio land speculator. After acquiring several thousand acres, in 1829, he returned to Connecticut to marry Abagail Talcott Hooker. Sometime between 1831 and 1834, the family moved to the Clintonville area.

In 1856, Hattie married Erskine Asa Fuller, aka E. A. Fuller. E. A. was known as a dealer in stock animals. When her father passed away, Hattie inherited all of farm lot 5 in Clinton Township Ohio. The 1870 census shows a large extended family living together in Clintonville–the Fullers and their daughters, Hattie’s mother, brother, sister, and several farm hands and servants. The combined household value per that census was in excess of $25,000. Hattie passed away in 1879. E.A. passed away in 1894. After their deaths, the farm was transferred equally to the four Fuller daughters–Abby, Mary, Katherine and Martha.

Martha Fuller and her sister Katherine Fuller Peters lived all of their lives in Clintonville. They owned two brick homes along High Street–Katherine’s just south of where the Library sits today and Martha’s where the Christian Science church sits today. Martha Fuller passed away in 1938. She left half of her land holdings to long time farm hand Matthew McCallen and half to her niece (sister Mary’s daughter) Helen Osborn.

Eventually, all the land was sold off, some to the Christian Science Church, some to the Calvary Bible Church, and the balance to the City of Columbus.

The Clintonville Woman’s Club land was purchased by the Kiwanis Club of Northern Columbus. That Club loaned the ladies the funds needed to build the Clubhouse. In turn, they held a mortgage on the property. The Woman’s Club members worked tirelessly and retire their debt to the Kiwanis within five short years! They have owned the Club house and property ever since.

[Courtesy of Mary Rodgers]

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]

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.

This lovely mill was located on the river, just north of the present Dodridge Street bridge. There is another photo of this, in my book.

The original dam and mill were constructed by David Beers in 1810. Beers owned the land on which the mill was located. Darius Wilcox built a sawmill adjacent to the flour mill. The mills later came to be owned by the John James Piatt family. The buildings burned down on June 13, 1902. The area just to the east and north is where Olentangy Amusement Park was located.

[Image courtesy of Galen Gonser]