Mark Jordan standing in a cemetery pointing to a grave dressed in jeans, jacket and hat
Historian Mark Sebastian Jordan at work. Credit: Submitted

Well, folks, the year 2023 is all but in the books now. It was a year that saw some interesting stories visited or revisited in the numerous pages of History Knox. I figured we’d close the year by recalling a few of this year’s adventures.

This 1922 advertisement is for Schiappacasse’s candy store, also known at times as “The Palace of Sweets.” The Schiappacasse family ran this fruit/candy store for almost half a century, with locations on West High Street, Public Square, and finally on South Main Street.

The year started off with the remarkable story of a family from an ethnicity not often highlighted in the history of Mount Vernon, the Italian Schiappacasse family. The family trade was candy making—or “confectionery” as it was known in those elegant days—and they set up shop and thrived for decades before moving on to other parts of the country. In their time here, they endured hat fires, explosions, and public scandal. The story was so colorful we chose it as one of the featured histories explored in this year’s Mound View Cemetery Tour.

Speaking of Mound View, some nasty vandalism of the site prompted considerable discussion in March of this year, including my two cents’ worth about the importance of trying to connect with those bored and disillusioned enough with the world to willfully destroy parts of it that matter greatly to others.

In the spring, we ran a deep dive into the story of Billy Bergin, remembered as the only man ever hung for murder in Mount Vernon. It was a vile crime, but I think it is important to explore and learn from stories like this, for what lies beneath the surface of Bergin’s disintegrating life is a monstrous mess of untreated trauma. It’s up to us to catch those people and help them before they do something awful and inexplicable. I’ll link here to the final installment of the five-part story, which will also give you the links to the other parts.

June brought an interesting challenge for me as I tried to track down the elusive traces of the world-famous English abolitionist Joseph Barker, who lived in Knox County for a period of time before the Civil War. It was difficult because this important piece of history has been little covered elsewhere. The following month brought some comic relief in the story of deadbeat George Belote, a real “blote shote.”

Black and white photo of man in suit playing violin
Knox County fiddler John Baltzell became nationally known in the 1920s, making extensive radio broadcasts and records. He learned much about fiddling directly from Dan Emmett.

I teamed up with Dr. Howard Sacks from Kenyon College to mark the centenary of the first recordings made by Knox County fiddler John Baltzell, who had a national profile in the 1920s thanks to extensive appearances at fiddle contests and tours. For our traditional October dive into a dark story, I gathered my research on convicted killer Romy Cotell (who almost certainly didn’t do the crime he was convicted of) and his connection to Mount Vernon.

We closed the year by getting some reader help on identifications and stories regarding Kemmer’s gas station and Kilkenney’s Grocery before moving on to recollections of Christmas past (by the way, to the reader who wrote in that she’d love to see some ads from the 1940s and 50s shared in History Knox, I would, too! Unfortunately, they’re still under copyright, so I can’t run them). It has been a great year, and I thank you for coming along for the ride. In 2024, History Knox will enter its sixth year, and I will try to keep up with the various messages and requests still lingering out there.

Stories are important, and there’s never enough time to gather the harvest!