Franklin County, Ohio

It was another perfect 75° day in SoCal.  Checking the weather for Columbus, Ohio I see it was only a little warmer. They have thunder storms and 90 °predicted for the upcoming week – something we definitely do not have; but right now there is only 2° difference in our temp.

Franklin County Government Center

I was looking at Franklin County today. There seems to be something warm and inviting in a place named for Benjamin Franklin. One of my best friends, a friend from high school (long ago), has lived there most of her life and comfortably calls it home. My Dad enjoyed his business trips to Columbus – flying in for meetings at Nationwide Insurance. He regrets not having the time to drive up the road to Knox County to see where his family came from. 

My mother’s mother’s family farmed in and around Reynoldsburg. I see today it is a large suburb of Columbus and that “Bow Wow” is a famous son. That brought a smile.

I liked the story of this capital city, how Zanesville and Chillicothe were just not quite right, so they went to the center and picked a site with great river transportation capability and said, like Brigham Young, “this is the place.”  And then, like Washington D.C., in 1812 they started building a city where there wasn’t one and by 1814 the Ohio Statehouse was completed.  They started fresh.  That is a pleasing story.

I’m still sorting through the family who lived there – the ones who found their way there from other states and died there, and the ones who were born there and wandered westward to Iowa.  Their name was Bingaman. For a time they proudly claimed Franklin County, Columbus, and Reynoldsburg as home. I found Civil War Soldiers.

These Are My Jewels Civil War Monument
Columbus, Ohio

They had lots of kids, several brothers owned farms near each other.  For the children this must have been cousin heaven. There’s something special about cousins. You can feel the bond of kinship.

The people of Columbus are not without humor. I found that there is an ‘official’ weather motto – “if you don’t like the weather wait five minutes it will change!”  Love it.

Photos: Microsoft Clipart www.microsoft.comCivil War Monument, Ohio Statehouse http://www.ohiostatehouse.org
Government Center www.wikipedia.com