Looking Back, Looking Forward, and the stats

The original plan was to do 18 counties in 18 days – that was overly ambitious and for me a little unrealistic.  I did start in August and ended in September and in that time researched and grew to love 19 of Ohio’s 88 counties. They all have their own peculiar character – all of them representative of Ohio – and yet so different.  Different like siblings or cousins.  If you have more than one child or grandchild you know what it is like to marvel over how related and how different they are.  That is the feeling I have for the 19 counties where my families settled.  

These sibling counties (those split off from each other) and these cousin counties (formed in the same pioneering spirit) are like the children of a family.  

I don’t want to diminish the importance of the remaining 69 counties of Ohio. They are simply not the brothers, sisters, and cousins of my families – but they may be yours.  I encourage my readers to research the history of any of those places and I’m sure they’ll find, as I have, many things of value and of interest to celebrate.  Thanks to all those hard working people in ‘my counties’ who take the time to tell their story on-line – whether it be genealogists, government workers, or volunteers—they all love their home and are most generous in sharing.

I have to put in a plug for Google. When I first started blogging in September 2009 [http://sandyhikes.blogspot.com/] I chose Google’s Blogger for my site. It was clean, simple, easy and attractive. Since then it has gotten a little more sophisticated, but not complicated. It has gotten better and is still clean and easy – free and ad free if I wish it to be.  It is also linked to other Google services like Picasa for my photos.  One day I may learn to use all the other Google services – but at the moment I’m happy and grateful for this outlet where I can express myself and share information. 

There are certain websites that are so useful that I use them over and over.  I’ve done a post on Find A Grave. com and I owe one to Wikipedia.com.

Wiki Wiki Wiki Wiki Wiki Wiki

My blog would be diminished and much more difficult to do if the wiki information wasn’t out there.  Thank you, thank you!  Sprinkled throughout my blog posts you will see wiki links and photos.  I am grateful for the wonderful, free clipart available through mircosoft.com.  I agree with one reviewer who mentioned that her estimation of Microsoft raised several notches when she found their generous sharing of free clipart. 

Google Blogger – thanks for the stats! Part of Google’s blog service is to track how often your blog  is accessed, which posts are read, and where your readers are from. I love this and check often. As of this evening for Aquila’s Orchard Blog I have 41 published posts and they have been accessed 3,502 times. That is amazing and I’m thrilled. Google has graphs showing which days the blog has been accessed. They let me know which posts have been popular that day.  This can be displayed for the day, week, month, or total time. For this week the post on Hamilton County has the most views. That isn’t too hard to understand as Hamilton contains the very large city of Cincinnati. But right next to it in popularity is Knox, a rural country that not only is second in the number of hits but has the most comments. 

One thing that I love about the Google stats is that it has a world map and that shows where your readers are in varying shade of green.  In the world?!  Yes, this is a global site and I have international readers. How cool is that!! I wonder if they are expats, non-English speakers practicing their English, or just interested in things American?  What countries are represented? My second largest audience, by far, is in Russia. The list continues with Germany, South Korea, United Kingdom, Malaysia, France, Norway, Canada, Ireland, China, Indonesia, and Poland.  This is. . .well. . .cool.  Those countries that had one view drop off the list. . . but I find them interesting, too.  Who is that one person in an entire country that read my blog? It’s sort of like having a zillion international pen pals but with only one-way communication. I wish they’d use the comment box and let me know who they are! 

Thanks readers ~ спасибо spasibo, danke, gamsahabnida 감사합니다, Cheers, terima kasih, merci, Tusen takk, Go raibh maith agat, Xièxiè 谢谢, dziękuję !!

 Time to work on that book!

Photos & Clipart:  Wikipedia; Microsoft Clipart, Google Blogger

Wyandot ~ the last county in more ways than one!

Wyandot County Courthouse



This is it. The last Ohio County. Since early August I have researched, written up a brief history and blogged about the experience. Wyandot is #19.  And, after looking at 19 (21.5%) of the 88 counties in Ohio I think I have a pretty good grasp of the history and character of the state. It was a good sampling. I have certainly learned a great deal about an area that was once just a turnpike to me. Thanks to writers such as Conrad Richter and Helen Hooven Santmyer I have some idea of Ohio’s rich history; and I’ve learned so much about the westward pioneering movement in which Ohio played a key role.

I now have a good idea of where I need to go as a genealogist to complete my records and visit the farms and homes of our ancestors . . . but more than that, I have developed a love for beautiful Ohio. Modern day Ohio is a cornucopia of possibilities for vacationers. My list of ‘fun things to do’ is very long and I didn’t even look at the whole state.

At the onset of this project I wrote to the Genealogy/Historical Societies in each county and the Ohio Genealogical Society to ask for any input they might volunteer about their area – after all I was doing this long-distance – well over 2,000 miles. Any home-grown insight was welcomed. I heard from only a few, and those few were much appreciated. I received an informative note from Betsy representing the Wyandot Tracers in Wyandot County. It being the last county I’d cover I tucked her notes away until I could work my way through the alphabet. Betsy, thank you so much! (Wyandot was not only my last county - in 1845 it was the last Ohio County to be established - and it is the last county alphabetically.
If it weren’t for Betsy I could have looked at Wyandot as a rather dull, agricultural backwater that is, well, boring. That was my first impression. Our ancestor Joseph Rowland lived near the tiny village of Kirby in Mifflin Township.  Kirby is still tiny with a populations of 117 in 2010 – but then, it isn’t a ghost town – it’s still there and worthy of a visit. Upper Sandusky, county seat and the ‘big city' in Wyandot, has less than 7,000 citizens. With those figures you can imagine a pretty, rural setting. Currently I’m reading Santmyer’s memoir of the town of Xenia, called Ohio Town. With that history in mind I can picture the development of Upper Sandusky.  Betsy writes, “We have a wonderful town here with tree lined streets and many churches. Big houses set along South Sandusky Ave.”  After reading Helen’s book I can see it growing up around me. (A note, Upper Sandusky is not connected to the larger city of Sandusky, Ohio which is a ways to the north along Lake Erie and is the county seat for Erie County.

John Stewart

Betsy’s notes lead me to John Stewart, that remarkable son of free blacks who labored as a missionary among the Wyandot Tribe in the early 1800s, and there built a mission church.  After that up-lifting information I was plunged down when learning about one of the darkest moments in our history – the Gnadenhutten Massacre of the Moravian Indians by American militia near the end of the Revolution (this did not happen in Wyandot County). It was an unspeakable tragedy; and makes Stewart’s success in converting Indians to Christianity even more remarkable. Col William Crawford was burned at the stake, in what would become Wyandot County, in retaliation for this horrible deed – but he was just a token. How many of our stalwart pioneers participated in this horror?


Col William Crawford

It is no wonder that settlers had trouble keeping their scalps after the massacre.

There are 10 National Historic sites to visit in Wyandot County. The two I don’t want to miss is Stewart’s Mission Church and the Monument where Col. Crawford was burned at the stake. I'd like to see where Congressman Darius Hare put out his shingle as an attorney after his two terms as a U.S. Congressman.  And, I don't want to miss the scenic river route along the Sandusky River.

Sandusky River in Wyandot County

Photos: Wyandot County Courthouse - Wikipedia
Ohio Town - Amazon.com
Col. William Crawford - Wikipedia
Sandusky River - Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources
John Stewart - Love, N. B. C. John Stewart, Missionary to the Wyandots (1900) as reprinted in Ohio History by Ohio Historical Society in 1908.
Additional Notes:  Betsy Bowen

Washington County, Ohio ~ Ohio's first ~ and some old spoons

Pres. George Washington
by Gilbert Stuart

Does anyone know a biography of George Washington that makes him come alive as a person? I get John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson, Paul Revere, and Old Ben Franklin they and most other historical figures have personalities that travel through the years and you have a sense of the person behind the dry facts or the colorful myths.  But George Washington? For me he comes across as a blank, he’s smoke, a symbol without personality. He just isn’t there. I’m sorry I find him soulless and vacant and that he seems to be a place-holder. Am I the only one that feels this way? Reading the cherry tree story and visiting Mt Vernon, his lovely estate, didn’t do it. I know he was a soldier and planter, but that doesn't do it. To me Washington is a dollar bill, a monument, a city and a state – and now a county in Ohio.  All of them honor George, the Father of our County, but was he a significant personality in his time or just a convenient, albeit, zero to put on a pedestal?  

Washington was the first county in what would be Ohio and was established in 1788.  The first settlement was Marietta.  In 1799 our ancestor, Samuel Garen, then living in Wellsburg, Brook County, (W) Virginia received his first deed for land in Washington County – making the Garen family (my mother’s mother’s people) one of the earliest into the territory. Sam and his wife, Jane (aka Jeany) traveled some miles up the Muskingum River Valley from Marietta and built their home in the wilderness near Waterford. By 1810 when the first census was taken Samuel Garen had a household with 4 males over 10 years, 3 males under 10, 2 females over 10,  and 3 under 10.  One can only imagine what facing the wilderness was like. Nor was the land vacant. There were plenty of Native Americans living there that didn’t recognize “ownership” of land.
These days a portion of Wayne National Forest is part of this Appalachian county. Coal was mined; the area has lost jobs and population. There are 2 cities, 5 villages and 22 townships chock full of activities and natural beauty, and great people who take pride in their communities. I will definitely want to see where Samuel conquered the wilderness and built his homestead.  Maybe we can take a boat up the Muskingum. Did you know it flows north?

This is one of those odd Saturday mornings where I have a long list of “to dos” and am hopping from one thing to another – clean part of the kitchen, catch up on email, polish those super tarnished spoons, write the history page for Washington County, make a phone call I should have made 2 months ago, start the blog post. . .  As you can see, I’m trying not to sit at the computer all morning and one of the best ways to accomplish that is to do housework during the breaks. The work is endless – as all housekeeping and genealogy are, so it is good to mix it up and get a few things done I’ve been putting off. 

Tarnished spoons?  Who actually uses silver or silver plate that needs polishing these days? I’ve sworn off stopping at the estate sales of those recently deceased. It is too depressing. Their junk is out for sale. I never seem to arrive when anything of value is left. I feel kind of guilty picking through their once loved things. It is different than the usual garage sale where people are just thinning out their stuff.  Estate sales, except in wealthy areas, tend to be a bit grim.  What grandma saved as dear has no meaning or value to anyone else.  Occasionally I’m drawn in looking for a good out-of-print book or two. One day I stopped and found no books but in the kitchen there were five, delicate, old, and very tarnished silver (plate) iced tea spoons.  You know, the long ones that can reach the sugar at the bottom of the glass.

I bought the tarnished spoons that had been treasured but neglected by someone else’s grandmother with the intent of cleaning them right away and putting them to use. Didn’t happen. The stuff under my sink was a jumble and I couldn’t find the silver polish. Yesterday the plumber was here – lettuce – don’t put lettuce in the garbage disposal it is a great clogger that creates a dirty fountain in your kitchen! Once the plumber had pulled everything out of the cupboard I used that ‘opportunity’ to give myself a clean and well-ordered space for dish soap and the like.  And there – of course – was the silver polish. There are now five delicate, glowing ice tea spoons on the counter. And, they are loved once more.

 

Grandma's Iced Tea Spoons

http://www.washingtongov.org/index.aspx?nid=228 – History of Washington County *Posted on ancestry.com by Martin Tracy from genealogical notes from Rita Booth Tracy, about 1949.Photos:  Wayne National Forest - http://www.fs.usda.gov/activity/wayne/recreation/horseriding-camping
George Washington - Wikipedia

Eureka! The Perfect Family Reunion Place!



Ash Cave Complex

A little blogging break. Washington County, Ohio is on my mind but it’s not ready yet. While looking into Washington County I stumbled upon what might seriously be the best areas ever for a family reunion. It is a complex of parks – some sites say nine, I saw a list of 12 – with every outdoor activity you can imagine.  Plus it is incredibly beautiful. Plus there are great little villages with bed and breakfast inns and other great places to stay, and restaurants with great food.

Honestly it doesn’t really matter that none of us live in Ohio – we can go there as a family to commune with nature and each other.  The area is called Hocking Hills and is mostly located in Hocking County – which way back was probably part of Washington County. So kids and grandkids and great grandkids – please follow the links and let me know what you think.  I think you’re gonna love it!

http://www.hockinghills.com/

http://parks.ohiodnr.gov/hockinghills

http://www.explorehockinghills.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hocking_Hills

http://www.thehockinghills.org/

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=hocking+hills+ohio&qpvt=hocking+hills+ohio&FORM=IGRE

“Hocking Hills provides a variety of recreational opportunities in a splendid natural setting. The 2,356-acre park has towering cliffs, waterfalls and deep hemlock-shaded gorges to lure the hiker and naturalist and serve as a backdrop to popular facilities and accommodations.”  ODNR Division of Ohio State Parks

The above is an understatement.  I was impressed with the ziplines in other counties -- this one has 50 miles of zips.  Whoa!   And, they not only have horse trails they have stables that provide horses.

Seriously, let me know what you think.  This might be the place in 2014!

Photos:  www.wikipedia. com



Warren County ~ Home Sweet Waynesville

Okay, I’ve decided. I’m buying a couple of lotto tickets this week (after all, the PowerBall is $245 Million!).  I think most of us have lottery dreams, I know I do and most of them revolve around travel. This week I dedicate my winnings to a road trip that will get me to Waynesville, Warren County, Ohio for the Sauerkraut Festival! It is billed as one of the nation’s largest street fairs with hand crafted only items.  I’m in. I can do all of my Christmas shopping. The only disappointment is the ban on dogs. Here in California the street fairs are dog friendly and it is almost as fun dog watching as it is people watching.

Beatrice

That's okay, with my winnings I’ll be able to leave Beatrice at a first class kennel. I’ll buy a comfortable, fuel efficient car; make my reservation at The Golden Lamb Inn in Lebanon – home base for my Warren County stay – and plan to be in Waynesville for the festival on Oct 12 and 13. As my friend Pat would say, “Sounds like a plan.”  It isn’t that far off – right now it’s September 10 but I could do this. Of course, I could fly to Cincinnati and rent a car . . . but there are so many things to see in between Warren County and San Diego . . . including my friends Pat and Scott in Denver. Maybe they'll want to roll on with me to Ohio!

While we are in Warren County there are so many ‘must sees’ that we’ll be pretty busy and will need those restful nights at the inn.  Did you know that 12 presidents and a slew of other notables, including Samuel Clements (Mark Twain!) stayed at the Golden Lamb? We’d have to take a leisurely day to poke around the Warren County Historical Museum and Glendower Historic Mansion.  After a day of indoor browsing it will be time for the outdoors at Ft. Ancient Historic Landmark and park. I could describe these places but the websites do it better, so please check out the links on this post especially! 

For those looking for more active fun there are a couple of great spots for that – the King’s Island Amusement Park – is the largest in the Midwest.  If you are a roller coaster fan this is the place. And if you’d like more nature centered fun the zip lining is fantastic at Ozone Zipline Adventures at YMCA Camp Kern.  Wow, it looks so beautiful. I wish these places had been up and running when I was up and running! Okay, I’m up but not running. Sigh. Oh, oh, oh. . . I’m working out – there are bridal paths at Caesar’s Creek State Park and boating at the lake.  Horses!  Yes!  Well, I can see I’m staying in Warren County a while.

I have one ancestor on my list that lived in Waynesville. And there is something about her – a connection I’ve always felt.  I can relate a little to her experience – a husband dying and traveling to a new place to live – a free floating ‘what do I do now’ feeling that accompanies the grief of losing a life-partner. I left Dallas for Cardiff-by-the-Sea, California. She left Newberry, South Carolina and all she had known for Waynesville, Warren, Ohio. The similarities stop there. I moved to a known metropolitan area. She moved to a new and wild country not long wrested from the Indians. Still, when I found that Quaker town on the Internet – so welcoming, quiet, and home-like tears rolled down my cheeks. Maybe I was seeing Waynesville through Esther’s eyes.  Esther Coate Pemberton (1766-1810) was raised in one prominent Quaker family and married into another.  Most of her community of Quaker friends in South Carolina was moving to Ohio. [My father's people.]



Friends Boarding House Museum



Having to move on her own she must have found relief in this Quaker sanctuary where they even had (or would have) a boarding house for single Quakers in various circumstances (now a museum). I don’t know exactly how Esther felt but when I saw Waynesville it felt like home.

There’s so much to do in Warren County, Ohio.  See you there!

Credits: Sauerkraut Festival logo - http://www.sauerkrautfestival.com/
The Golden Lamb Inn - Wikipedia commons
Friends Boarding Home - http://www.friendshomemuseum.org/index.html
Zipline - http://campkern.org/ozone/

Shelby County ~ Freed Slaves, a Nobel Laureate, and our Hessian Soldier

Paul Lauterbur,

Shelby County is unique. Not every county in Ohio has its own Nobel Prize laureate. Paul Lauterbur (1929-2007) was a chemist, researcher, and professor who, with Sir Peter Mansfield, were honored for their work in the development of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Tecumseh,
Shawnee Leader

Shelby County is a section of Ohio carved out of Miami County in 1819. The size of Shelby County was later pared down with the establishment of Auglaize and Allen Counties.  It is an area of conquests and shifting populations. The Shawnee pushed into the area displacing the Ottawa, who moved to the northwest. Then the Iroquois, Seneca and Mingo joined them. They, in turn were displaced by European-American pioneers from the east.  The first county seat, Hardin, was named after John Hardin who was killed by the Shawnee In 1792.  The current county seat is Sidney. (If you follow this link it gives a great little summary of Sidney’s history.)

John Randolph,
Wikipedia Commons

What, especially, sets Shelby County apart from its fellow Ohio counties is related to the death John Randolph in Virginia. He was a southerner and an American, but possibly in his heart he was an Englishman. For, his death in 1833 coincided with the abolition of slavery in England.  In his will Randolph freed his nearly 400 slaves and provided money for them to settle in a free state. This action must have shocked his slave-owning neighbors as his will was challenged in the Virginia courts; but finally in 1846 the “Randolph Slaves” traveled to Shelby County, Ohio and lived in and farmed around a community they called Rumley in Van Buren Township. Beginning in 1900 reunions were held for the Randolph (Ex)-Slave Association. That first year 62 original settlers, all of them children at the time of the migration, attended as well as many who had since been born free in Ohio.

In the opposite corner of Shelby County our Princehouse family was one of the earliest to settle. Our immigrant ancestor had an interesting story and I was completely side-tracked (in a good way) researching this German-America family. My mother’s grandmother’s maiden name was Princehouse. I was 13 when my great grandmother passed and I remember her well.  She was adored and venerated by everyone who knew her. Even my father, who lived in a distant state and had been divorced from my mother for eleven years, appeared at Great Grandma’s funeral. She was one of those people of whom you might say on their passing that “a light has gone out of the world.”   Many of her fine qualities must have come from her Princehouse ancestors who lived in Shelby County, Ohio.

Our immigrant ancestor was a young man of 19 living in Hesse in Germany. His family must have been in service in some way to a noble family and connected to the royal household as his name was Henrich Prinzehausen. Maybe having many siblings and few prospects he enlisted as a private in a Hessian regiment to fight those pesky rebels in America. I believe, at that time, the English thought this was a rebellious few that would be easily and quickly put down. Not so, of course, as we Americans were serious and at the Battle of Yorktown (VA) where the English and Germans were defeated by the Americans and the French Henrich was captured and marched to imprisonment in Frederick, Maryland.



Surrender of Lord Corwallis,
Wikipedia Commons

At the close of the war the Americans offered amnesty to Hessian soldiers willing to help settle this new and wild county. Here was Henrich’s opportunity – he adopted the name ‘Henry Princehouse’ and was now a young man with prospects and as the Northwest Territory opened up for settlement he headed for what would become Shelby County. He seemed to be a brave, adventurous, and enterprising man and we’re proud to have him on our family tree.

Historical information on Randolph Slaves, & early Shelby County - Wikipedia 
Photo of Ada Princehouse coutesy of Sharon Deaver
All other photos - Wikipedia Commons

Murder, She Wrote!

I’m not going to write about Shelby County today. That Ohio County is coming but first I have to tell you about a murder that took place right by my house this week.

Tree, empty space on this side where
branches were removed a few months earlier.

No, it wasn’t the murder of a person or an animal. It was the cruel and unnecessary murder of a tree. Not just any tree, but a living, vibrant, healthy, beautiful tree – one that graced this neighborhood for over 50 years and is therefore irreplaceable. It would be one thing if the tree had been diseased and dying. This tree probably had another 20 to 30 years, at least, of sharing and cleaning the air to make it sweet and breathable. Another 30 years to house various bird species and insects. Another 30 years of beauty and shade to be appreciated. But, even if it were only 10 years or 5 years – it should not have been removed now. I simply can’t let the day go by without grieving for this lovely creature. Sometimes I would sit in the sun room and do nothing but enjoy the tree view. It was so lovely and peaceful, its branches swaying gently. It’s bird population flitting in and out. It was a Zen place. It was a good place. 

 

The beginning of the end.

It was only last week that my cousin, Diane, featured a website on her Facebook page called “That Tree.” Mark Hirsch, a talented photojournalist captured on his cellphone camera a lone and solitary tree every day for a year.  The photos are amazing, who knew a tree rooted in place could look so different every day of its life. 

 

The world seems to have two types of people – those who love and appreciate trees and those who are hell-bent on their destruction. The second type just baffles me. How can you not appreciate a tree?  Anyway, had I known about “That Tree” website sooner I believe I would have been out photographing ‘our’ tree.  I write ‘our’ that way because it wasn’t my tree . . . it was a neighborhood tree.  Several of my neighbors were out to join me in protesting this execution . . . but to no avail.  About six months ago another large, healthy, beautiful tree was taken down because "the roots were threatening the house."  Really?

Here’s what happened with this beautiful pine.  It was on a slope – growing straight and true with a deep root system. It was not leaning, it was not threatening.  Then a few months ago limbs were cut off encouraging the tree to over-balance. 

Almost gone

The poor little old lady whose house was sheltered by the tree took her life in her hands and crept out her back door while they were cutting the tree to let her protesting neighbors know that she had not called in the tree people. We weren’t able to save the tree. I’m sure the wood and the mulch will be recycled.  It is over. The tree will never again sweeten our air. 
  

Stump

Do you believe in omens? As the tree came down a strange black animal appeared.  It is as black as midnight.  There are no stray dogs around here and it does appear to be feral. No one can catch it.  It is rabies season, which is a concern. It ranges around the back of our houses where our tree once stood – as if it is the naked, lost spirit of the tree.

PS The coyotes from the canyon came after the dog. His screams and their howls in the middle of the night were blood curdling. I found my dog sitting up in her bed with eyes like saucers and we hugged each other.







Lovely Roof View sans tree 

The Facebook post below on ShamanTube is far more beautiful than anything I could write about a tree. Please click on this link!

Post by ShamanTube.

Scioto County ~ On Labor Day

[Portsmouth was chosen as county seat because it would be high and dry and safe from flooding. At the bottom of the post is a YouTube of the 1937 Flood in Portsmouth. It is very long but worth an eye-popping look. You may want to turn it on and listen to the music while you peruse the post.]

Labor Day, that extra Monday off from work is welcomed every year in my home by birthdays and the start of the school year. I’ve given little thought to the holiday otherwise. Considering it was established to honor the American Labor Movement and all the ‘blood, sweat, and tears’ that went into the fight for better hours, better working conditions, and a decent minimum wage it is amazing that management is let out to play.  There are still workers who have to work on Labor Day while the rest of us recreate.  Possibly it should be a weekend of only management working if they want to keep their businesses open. They can sling hamburgers or clerk behind the counters as a thank you to those who labor the rest of the year. My hat is off to businesses like Costco who close and let everyone have a day off to picnic and relax.  

From all reports Scioto County, Ohio really celebrates the holiday in a big way and I’m happy that my focus was on that Ohio River County yesterday. Traditionally they’ve held “River Days” with a parade, a pageant that selects a high school beauty queen, and boat races on the river. People turn out with their picnic baskets and barbecues. The more I study Ohio the more I think of it as the quintessential American state. And, what could be more American than Labor Day in Portsmouth, Ohio!

Portsmouth is the county seat of Scioto County and is at the confluence of the Ohio and Scioto rivers. Water plays a big role here – boating, water sports, and in the early days, especially, water transportation. Add to the mix the Ohio-Erie Canal and that’s a lot of water. All that water flows through this beautiful, hilly, and forested Appalachian county. It is part of the Unglaciated Allegheny Plateau.  The largest city in this plateau is Pittsburgh. Part of the Wayne National Forest is in Scioto County and is the only National Forest in the state. The county also has Shawnee State Park which is hilly, forested and has great hiking trails; and it also has a lodge, a golf course, and a marina. If they have horse trails I’d say it pretty much has it all. If you find me in Scioto County this is where I’ll be! Scioto is an Indian word meaning deer, there’s lots of deer habitat here.

The county is mostly rural with some small manufacturing. They used to make shoelaces and shoes here. It is a county that has lost population in the past few decades. It is the home of Shawnee State University.  There seems no doubt which Native American tribe predominated as the name Shawnee keeps popping up. Speaking of cowboys and Indians – okay we weren’t speaking of cowboys . . . but this is the birthplace of Leonard Franklin Slye.  Who? That would be Roy Rogers.

For those too young to see him on anything but old TV reruns, he was a mega-star in the 1950. Huge. I had brown corduroy Roy Rogers jacket . . . and it was oh so cool to carry a Roy Roger lunchbox to school. He made many movies – most of those before my time. As kids we grew up with Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, sidekick Gabby Hayes, Bullet the German shepherd, and Trigger the palomino. They visited our homes every Saturday morning.

There must be a great baseball program in Scioto County as it is also the birthplace of many professional baseball players. If Scioto County is a place to leave when you grow up it is also a place of beauty to visit.  The first week of August it holds the largest County Fair in the state. Put it on the calendar!

If this square is black click on it!

 You'll find many more YouTude videos about Portsmouth, Ohio at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbTKBSZeFXw


Animated Clipart - www.microsoft.com/clipart
Photos - www.wikipedia.com