History Knox
Mark Sebastian Jordan's History Knox column is published each Saturday morning. It reflects on the history of Knox County.
MOUNT VERNON — As time keeps rolling along, I see that we’ve reached the end of 2024.
History Knox will be entering its seventh season with the new year, and each year has brought a crop of interesting stories dug from the roots of local history.
The year got off to an interesting start last January with a multi-state story covering the now-forgotten criminal career of Gladys Crawford (a.k.a. Gladys LaRue, alias Ruth Byron, etc.).
She was involved in robbery and drug charges throughout the Midwest in the 1920s and 1930s, but who also had a real talent for getting the men she was involved with to take the fall for her crimes.
I can’t believe someone hasn’t made a movie about her.
There’s no proof that she was involved in a 1933 bank robbery in Fredericktown, but she was arrested with the money a few weeks later in Chicago.
In May, we visited the “fistic” accomplishment of the famous baseball umpire and brawler Cy Rigler, who late in his career gathered a reputation as the “least thin-skinned umpire” in the American League.
In his early days, which included a stint in Mount Vernon, Rigler was known to level rude players with a single punch.
The same month found me in the back yard of a Mount Vernon house, examining the uncovered remains of one of the original sidewalks going into the Knox County Fairgrounds, which in the mid-1800s, stood in what is now the northeast part of town.
I love stories of past rascals with outsized personalities. In June we examined the clever con pulled off by “Old Nath” Headington before he left the town.
Sure, the editor rewrote my original headline and gave away the entire story in his new headline. But trust me, it’s worth a read anyway.
I keep trying to explain to my editors that I should be regarded like Moses coming down from the Mountain with Commandments that need no further editing. But they don’t seem to believe me. (And, lest anyone think I’m really that arrogant, these comments are all purely tongue in cheek.)
June also saw my deep dive into memories of the Wapakoneta storyteller, historian, artist, and all-around character Jim Bowsher, who left this earth late last spring.
He appeared several times as a speaker in Mount Vernon and Mansfield, and I knew him well for over 20 years.
His like won’t soon be seen again, so I explored the man and his adventures in two parts, the second of which can be found here.
In July, we took a look at the now almost forgotten dramatic dash made from Mansfield to Mount Vernon by John Laylan during the War of 1812, a year before Johnny Appleseed’s similar run for reinforcements.
I guess Appleseed just had a better publicist than Laylan!
Early in August, I found a fascinating slice-of-life story about a couple of orphans who grew up together in India, who then crossed paths many years later in Mount Vernon and tied the knot.
They had to go half way around the world to reconnect with their original soul mates.
Remarkably, I was even able to find a baby picture of one of the two subjects. August also saw another story of a remarkable character who once lived between Jelloway and Brinkhaven, Uncle Zip.
Uncle Zip had his own mysterious criminal roots which make him an intriguing figure.
In October, we were able to take a remarkable walk into the past of rural Milford and Miller Townships thanks to the 1910 written recollections of W.H. Smith, who recalled his childhood there in the early to mid-1800s.
That month also saw another installment in the ongoing series of columns about prehistoric Indian mounds in Knox County, with the story of the giant skull found in Fredericktown’s Ghost Hill in 1921.
Onward now we travel to 2025, the lucky seventh year of History Knox, with more fascinating stories to be rediscovered.
Thanks for reading.
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