Still milling about after all these years...

Clifton Mill complex

The rushing waters of the Little Miami River between Columbus and Dayton once created economic opportunity for dozens of mills in the 1880s.  Today a single mill provides seasonal delight to thousands while maintaining the legacy of enterprise in Ohio.  Greene County was home to over 70 mills in the early 1800s, as entrepreneurs took advantage of the river's natural energy source.  Over 16 were located in the Clifton area, of which today only the Clifton Mill remains.

Clifton Mill gorge

The Clifton Mill is the only mill that remains in operation. Originally constructed in 1803 as a complex of mill, tavern, trading post and distillery, the mill has a long history of community service.  During the War of 1812, the mill's grain was provided for soldiers and between 1908 and 1938 it provided electricity for the villages of Clifton, Cedarville and Yellow Springs.

covered foot-bridge at Clifton Mill

A covered foot-bridge allows the visitor a chance to walk over the river as it bounds down and through the gorge that powers the mill. The bridge gives a great photo opportunity of the mill proper and the gorge racing downriver towards the Ohio River miles away.  While the structures today are restored, the bridge itself has a weathered look to its that adds authenticity to the history of the mill.

Clifton Mill water wheel

Another nearby mill, the Grinnell Mill, dates back to 1821, built on the foundation of the previous mill that burned down.  It had been functioning since 1814.  The mill deteriorated over time, as the Grinnell family (owned between 1864 and 1948) handed it over to nearby Antioch College, who then had no resources to restore the mill when it was declared a fire hazard in 2003.  It has been lovingly restored and operates as a Bed and Breakfast with tours of the mill.

lights awaiting the holiday lighting season

Progress didn't benefit Clifton.  As floods wiped out mills along the river, electric power was preferred over water power and businessmen rebuilt elsewhere. The decision to locate the railroad at nearby Yellow Springs further eroded business in the village and in 1849 an outbreak of Cholera led to half the population's demise and many others simply chose to leave town.

Today the 200-person village of Clifton is easy to miss as you motor along Ohio SR 72 heading south from Springfield.  Tucked away on the west side of Rt 72 about 15 minutes south of Springfield, it is easy to miss Clifton 11 months out of the year.  But it's December that Clifton becomes a not-to-miss destination for Ohioans.  During the holiday season, 3.5 million lights are used to turn the gorge, mill and surrounding property into a winter wonderland.  

A miniature animated village and a 3,500-piece Santa collection compliment the lightscapes around the mill, which includes both a restaurant and gift shop.  A crew of six take most of three months to set up the displays that are viewed by thousands.  It has been an annual event for over 20 years.

The other 11 months find a much slower pace around the mill area. The mill claims to be the largest water-powered mill still in operation and conducts daily tours.  There are other buildings in town of historic nature, some available to tour others just showpieces.  

Clifton village other properties

While Clifton's hey-day has long since passed, and area residents commute to jobs around the area between Dayton, Springfield and Columbus, a little piece of what was a major industry in Ohio continues to flow just as the river it utilizes for its life.

- J.

View Larger Map

Chasing the Civil War in Ohio

Nestled among ballfields, businesses and major roads is Camp Chase

Ohio had but a few skirmishes during the four years of Civil War between 1861 and 1865, but Ohioans featured prominently in the war.  The third most populated state at the time, Ohio also sent the third most men for the Union Army, but it was leaders such as Grant, Sherman and Sheridan that had a more enduring legacy in the annals of the war.  But Ohio was also home to prisoner of war camps and on the west side of Columbus, nearly invisible to the passing commuter, history lies quietly among ballfields and businesses of the growing capitol of the state.

Established as a training ground along the national road in 1861, Camp Chase served as the temporary home for over 150,000 Union soldiers prepping to fight the Confederates.  Named for former Governor, and then-current Secretary of the Treasury Salmon Chase, the first southern prisoners were higher ranking Confederates who, with an oath of honor, were allowed to wander the City of Columbus. Security soon changed and many of these officers were sent north, to Johnson Island in Lake Erie.

Markers crammed into locations

The reason any remnants of the camp still exist was the 25,000 southerners were passed through the facility as prisoners of war.  As the war drew to an end in 1865, over 9,000 soldiers were still held captive and today over 2,000 gravestones mark those who perished within the walls.

As a prison, Camp Chase was originally situated to hold about 3,500 prisoners but quickly swelled to twice that size.  Upgraded through prison labor to hold 7,000 some believe 10,000 were crammed in the camp by war's end.  At war's end, the Camp quickly was vacated and structures removed.

In 1895 first memorial services were held, started by former Union soldier William Knauss.  A chapter of the Daughters of the Confederacy has sponsored a plaque in his honor along the south wall.  Originally the grave markers had been wooden but at some point around the turn of the century, the official U.S. markers given to all veterans replaced the original markers.

In 1902 a memorial arch was added and remains today, and is the only visible element of the cemetery as motorists and pedestrians pass along Sullivant Ave (the camp's former southern boundary).  Iron gates atop a four foot wall obscure that this is a historic landmark that today is little more in length than a football field in length and breadth.  Atop the monument stands a soldier, symbolically looking south, but with the word "Americans" atop the arch and below the statue.

With little explanation, a confederate cannonball fired at The Battle of Vicksburg and memorial stone stands near the entrance to the cemetery. Donated by a retired member of the Army, no on-site explanation is offered for its presence.  Google searches offer no help as well.

There are those who believe ghosts still haunt the cemetery.  The renowned Lady in Grey is the foremost spirit viewed walking the grounds.  Other mid-Ohio paranormal groups allege ghost activity on the grounds. A descendant of the Lady in Grey disputes these stories.

Ohio historical signage

More poignantly, as Ohio and the country look to commemorate the 150th anniversary of America's deadliest war, the cemetery stands as a reminder of the many forms of suffering that the war brought to a young nation.  Through Camp Chase passed the likes of Ohio's future presidents in Hayes, Garfield, McKinley as well as non-native, but at the time soon-to-be president Andrew Johnson.  The physical structures of the one-time camp may be ghosts to history, but the gravestones of scores of soldiers stands steadfast as today's commuters march on by.

- J.

Castles among the Corn

The front of Mac-o-Chee Castle

Among the sprawling fields of soybeans, among what was corn and wheat, stand a pair of castles that conspicuously stick out as you travel State Route 287 through Union County just northwest of Columbus.  What was once the lands of the Shawnee Indians, a pair of brothers built on a grand scale just a mile apart from each other in the post Civil War years in Ohio.  The Piatt Castles, called Mac-o-Chee and Mac-a-Cheek Castles, are off the beaten path but an interesting bit of Ohio History and why the state has and still is a destination location.

Library of Mac-o-Chee

The Piatt family was involved in early Ohio politics and trading along the Ohio River.  Benjamin Piatt served as a judge in Cincinnati but later moved the family to Logan County where Donn Piatt was raised.  Donn was educated in Cincinnati and moved on to Washington, DC, where he became heavily involved in political causes as a lawyer and newspaper columnist.  An ardent abolitionist, Piatt served in the Civil War as chief off staff to General Schenck in Maryland.  At a moment when Schenk was temporarily away from his post, Piatt is said to have issued an order to enlist only negro slaves in Maryland into the army which would have served to emancipate all of them.  Lincoln is said to have berated Piatt and forced his resignation from the army.  In the years following the Civil War he was quite an inflammatory character towards Presidents Grant and Hayes.


Piatt had the castle Mac-o-Chee built with state of the art technology of the time. Screened windows were patented in the early 1880s and Mac-o-Chee not only uses window screens but unique half-round transom screens above the doorways.  Indoor plumbing was not common at the time, but the home has unique first flushing commodes.

The home fell out of the Piatt family in the 1900's and was used,  unbelievably, as a barn for a local farmer who purchased the property for the land and not the house.  The fanstastic wooden floors have been carefully refurbished but still bear a place where the tractor stored in the "barn" irreparably stained the floor.

As eccentric as the home appears from the road, it was fitting that the home was saved by another eccentric individual.  An unwed daughter of Asa Griggs Candler, the founder of Coca Cola, was traveling through Union County in the 1950s and stopped at the castle and ended up purchasing the house.  One room today bears some of the furniture that she purchased to stock the home, as a castle home should have furniture you would find in a castle.

Mac-o-Chee today shows the wear and tear of a 100+ year old home.  The original paints on the walls and ceilings are fading and chipping.  While a historic home, funding doesn't appear available to speedily restore the home to its one-time splendor.  The tour of the home is mostly self-guided after a staff member gives a basic history and context introduction for the visit.

Abraham Piatt's Mac-a-Cheek

No more than two minutes down the road is the sister castle, Mac-a-Cheek.  Both castle names are derived from the Shawnee language that means "smiling valley."  Donn's brother Abraham built Mac-a-Cheek a bit farther from the road, but this did not stop visitors in the early 1900's from wandering the grounds and then asking to tour the castle.  Abraham thought that if he began charging for tours, which at the time consisted only of the front room of the house, that it would deter tourists.  The opposite occurred.

While the home incredibly stayed in the family for 6 generations, tours continued and it is believed to be the oldest home in Ohio with continuous running tours.  As time marched on, the family receded to other areas of the house and opened up more of the house for tours.  The most impressive room in the house is the grand parlor, which is the size of two or three regular sized rooms and like the sister castle Mac-o-Chee also has painted ceilings and intricate wood working on the floors and walls.

Today one or both homes can be toured.  Mac-a-Cheek in 2011 has a set up an impressive display of Civil War artifacts on the second floor of the home as a commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War.  A local resident created a diorama of a Virginia battle where an ancestor perished.  The amount of Civil War relics rivals or surpasses that of many larger museums while being restricted to two adjoining rooms. 

Mac-a-Cheek doesn't have tour access to the third floor or towers, while Mac-o-Chee does.  There are allegedly stories of ghosts at Mac-o-Chee.  There are also You Tube videos of the houses in modern times and a 1950s home movie that shows Mac-o-Chee.

Two castles amidst what used to be field of corn, still standing today as a symbol that Ohio once was home to those with powerful national ambitions but wanting to call home a place in the heartland.

J.

View Larger Map

Forgettable War, Unforgettable Fort



Inside Fort Meigs looking at a southwestern blockhouse

Who knew that Ohio boasts the largest historic fort site from the War of 1812?  For that matter, how many even remember there was a War of 1812? Lost among the shuffle of wars taught in the classroom history books, the War of 1812 often comes up short or even missing. But just outside Toledo, Ohio on the inland banks of the Maumee River stands Fort Meigs, an impressive structure that repelled not once, but twice the British invasion of northwestern Ohio.

The War of 1812 isn't as easy to understand as the Revolutionary War or the Civil War,  where causes seemed clear and a war inevitable. President James Madison in many ways was goaded into action from war-mongering politicians, who were tagged with the first use of the term warhawk, over issues involving British practices at sea and out west in the Great Lakes region. Throughout the nation a sizeable number of Madison High Schools today tout the Warhawks as their mascots.

Historic Marker and Visitor Center at Fort Meigs

For Ohio the War of 1812 was about Indians and Canadians, as both were immediate threats to the barely decade-old state. Fort Meigs was built to protect the interior of Ohio from coalition of English and French. The fort stands on the footprint of the original fort and features a nicely sized museum and visitor center. Built in 2003 as part of Ohio's Bicentennial celebrations, the winding displays give a great sense of the timing of the war and the artifacts of the time and those found at the site. A corner of the museum shows how modern science, including thermal imaging was used in renovating the fort.

Costumed interpreter reacting to musket demonstration

A visit on the right day might begin with a tour of the musuem by a costumed interpreter. On this visit the interpreter, a college-aged girl, remarked that in the 19th Century she did not have the right serve her country as a soldier but in the 21st Century does, including re-enacting one.

Fort McHenry in Baltimore certainly gains all the publicity and attention for the War of 1812, having been the site where Francis Scott Key penned the words to the Star Spangled Banner and what would later become the National Anthem.  But Fort Meigs is supersized in comparison to her east coast companion's star shaped designed.  Meigs is spread out over what could encompass two to three city blocks, with sturdy blockhouses every several hundred feet.

One of the eight blockhouse of Fort Meigs

These blockhouses not only served to repel Indian and British forces during the two sieges between May and July of 1813, but later housed pioneer families coming to northwest Ohio while their own homes were built.  Lore has it that one family, late in arriving and unable to secure housing in a blockhouse, set fire to the blockhouse.

Canon portal inside ground floor of a western blockhouse

The walls of these structures are several feet of solid wood with rifle portals that angle inward, giving a small outward target but inside the blockhouse a wide angle to swivel a gun for better accuracy.  A small cannon rests in the middle of the main floor room of each blockhouse with a narrow opening for firing outward.  Today the opening masks the intended view as tall grass obscures a view towards the river.

Croghan's Battery overlooking the Maumee and Perrsyburg

Each of the blockhouses today houses a different story about the fort, from soldiers quarters, disease and the role of women, to the science of artillery and a diorama of the fort's early construction. Artillery is a large part of the fort's story, defense and modern re-enactments. Each July 4th costumed interpreters hold a grand series of events, including a cannon fire demonstration on the grounds (click for video).

A series of large mounds were built within the interior of the fort to serve as buffers to artillery attacks from outside the walls and to also for fort storage, including powder magazines.  In 1908 a 100-foot monument to the war and the fort was erected, funded by the Grand Army of the Republic (a Civil War veteran's organization).



WPA Shelter House seen through blockhouse window



After the war and settlement of the area progressed, the fort reverted to farmland.  William Henry Harrison, hero of the war in the region, returned to the location of the fort for a Presidental campaign rally.  During the Great Depression, a road ran right through the former fort and the Works Progress Administration (WPA) built a rest-stop building inside what is today the fort.  The building has been maintained for its historic nature but for a different era.

The fort was reconstructed by the Ohio Historical Society in the 1960s and opened to the public in the 1970s.  A $6 million renovation in 2003 has turned the fort into the largest recreated fort in the nation, something that, just like the War of 1812, tends to get overlooked still today.

Fort Meigs, from the interactive displays, visitor center, museum and carefully reconstructed fort, offers a glimpse into a part of Ohio's history that featured dynamic individuals, such as Tecumseh and Harrison, and, of course, a naval battle on Lake Erie where Oliver Hazard Perry famously noted, "We have met the enemy and they are ours."  

J.

View Larger Map

A diverse and "beautiful spring" in Tuscarawas County

One of Ohio's first settlements was a diverse little village nestled in what is today on the outskirts of New Philadelphia in Tuscarawas County.  Schoenbrunn Village was a Moravian settlement, dating from 1772, that brought religion to the natives of Ohio.  Led by David Zeisberger, natives, primarily Delaware, were asked to abandon their traditional way of life to take up a Christian lifestyle in the village.  By all accounts the settlement enjoyed success in its mission and at its greatest had over 400 living within its walls that included natives from nine tribes, with the majority being Delaware. 

Interior of a larger home at Schoenbrunn

Originally from what is today the Czech Republic, Moravians named this village "Beautiful Spring" in German. The settlement, with a grand total of 28 men, women, children and a herd of cattle, moved to Ohio from northeast Pennsylvania where the Moravians and Delaware had spiritually worked together since 1734.  The location was chosen by a Delaware Chief, Netawates, or in English, Newcomer.  Just 20 miles from New Philadelphia lies the Ohio town, Newcomerstown, which English traders named in honor of the chief and had over 100 homes in the area by the 1770s. The Delaware called the Schoenbrunn location "Welhik T'uppek."

The Moravians, however, were pacifists and in the mid 1770s the Revolutionary War was reaching even into the Ohio territory.  Ft. Laurens, in what is today Bolivar, Ohio, was built in 1778 and the western theater of the war saw fighting in the northeastern Ohio territory.

Living somewhat apolitically in a self-sufficient community of Delaware and former Europeans, there was distrust by other settlers in the area whether the village was patriot or loyalist.  By 1778 the village was abandoned, but not before the church was taken apart to prevent desecration by others.  The village was reoccupied later that year, but only briefly as war continued to threaten the region.

The property in the early 1800s reverted to what much of Ohio had become: farmland.  Over 150 years later a minister of the Moravian Church, which still exists today, began researching the "lost" village.  Church records in Bethlehem, Pa., showed plat maps and journals by Zeisberger of the village's five-year run.  In 1923 the Ohio Historical Society took ownership and began to reconstruct the village.

A period interpreter stands outside a home at Schoenbrunn

The Visitor's Center at the site hosts a small, two-room museum displaying artifacts from archaeological digs. A conference room in the center doubles as a type of theater which loops a video of the construction of the village by the Ohio Historical Society.  Pictures along the walls show various stages of construction of the village, including an unusual aerial photo from 1930s that show how the land looked very different in the mid 1900s.  At the time of the dedication of the first re-constructed building, cars were parked haphazardly all over the farmer's field.  Today forest has grown around the village, restoring much of the look of the original village.

The school house glass window reflects more of the village

Of the 60 structures in the original village, today only 17 have been reconstructed.  Some of the buildings have been built upon the original foundation footprint from the 1770's. Moravian villages were spiritually laid out in the pattern of a cross, although the landscape at Schoenbrunn only allowed for a "T" pattern.  Anchoring the intersection of the two lines are the church and schoolhouse, both impressive structures.  Both contain glass windows, a rarity for frontier Ohio.  Records show glass was brought to the village and even today the wavy look of leaded glass adds authenticity to the recreated structures.

The schoolhouse, where period interpreters today will sometimes teach visitors Lenape, the Delaware language, was the first established school in Ohio.  However this is done in two "choirs" -- these were youngsters of the same age, gender and marital status.  Girls sat on one side of the room, boys on the other.

A period interpreter working on wooden hinges. 
The schoolhouse is the building in the background.

A visit to the village today on a weekend or special events day will yield period-costumed interpreters who will share the wares of the time. In one home a lady shared contemporary devices and their 1770s counterparts.  A woodworker along the main village way was constructing wooden hinges -- metal was another rare commodity in the woods of Ohio at the time. On a Children's Day, a colonial magic show kept little ones spellbound while a few houses down kids played colonial era games.

Schoenbrunn Villages fencing

Schoenbrunn also boasts a unique fortified fence, where poles, about 12 inches in diameter, were driven into the ground and seemingly stands at odds with a people of a pacifist nature.  It is only along the main avenue of the village.  Oustside the fence is the corn field, where children would alternate taking turns shooing away the wildlife. Corn was essential to the village and outside one home stands what could best be described as a colonial corn kerneler.  The raised notches in the drum would strip the niblets off the cob.

A colonial corn kerneler

As with many historical sites around Ohio, Schoenbrunn fell on hard times as state monies were diverted elsewhere.  The originally re-created village was renovated in the past decade to address decay that had crept in to the buildings.

Period interpreters, even the young ones, like to play

Today Schoenbrunn has undergone yet another re-birth and is being operated locally by the Dennison Railroad Depot. Throughout the year there are events such as a colonial trade fair, lantern tours and children's day.  All of these offer very unique and hands-on history and have added to the allure of stepping back into time to before Ohio's birth as a state when diversity was practiced long before its time.

- J.


View Larger Map