History Knox readers chime in on recent columns

As many of you know, in addition to writing this column and working a full-time third-shift job, I’m also currently researching and writing a book.

That research will provide some future columns, but in the meantime, it’s taking up a lot of my time. So, I am using this week to catch up on people’s responses to recent columns.

Last week, we looked at a postcard of Fredericktown, Ohio, but questioned which Fredericktown it was.

Art Schad noted that the steep hill in the picture reminded him of the hill at Zion Lutheran Church near Jelloway.

Adam Gilson pointed out that it could even have been a generic stock card with the town name printed on it. Intriguingly, Jim Crowl wrote that it looked more like Fredericktown, Missouri.

But two other readers said they thought it was the unincorporated Fredericktown in eastern Ohio.

“I’ve spent a lot of time in Fredericktown, Columbiana County, and it could very well be the location in the picture,” Ashley Elaine McMillin wrote on the Knox Pages Facebook post.

“Compare with street view on SR170 north of the village.” 

When I went virtually driving up and down OH 170 in Columbiana County, I did find a bend in the road which seemed a close match the postcard, though it is south of the village.

But the entire landscape thereabouts is similar.

Chip Sargent agreed with McMillin’s comment confirming Columbiana County.

“That’d be a safe bet,” he wrote. “This is a picture I took near the other Fredericktown, Ohio, while hiking at Beaver Creek State Park. And I like how they both have basically the same sky, lol.” 

Chip’s picture is gorgeous. I have never been to Beaver Creek State Park, but it reminds me of the picturesque Clear Fork Gorge at Mohican State Park.

Just before Christmas, we ran a picture of a white Christmas in Mount Vernon from more than 100 years ago. Dawnel Volzke was able to confirm the location on East Vine Street.

“One of the staircases and houses on the left looks like our house, which was built in 1910,” Dawn wrote on the Knox Pages Facebook post. “The right looks like the old church building and the area where the parking lot is by Dove Dental.

“I’m quite sure the first road on the left is the alley that leads to the back of the Memorial Theater then next is Mackenzie Street by the street light. 

“There is an electric light in that area today. Mackenzie can be seen on both the right and left as it is a cross street.”

John Thomas noted that the horse and buggy in the photo didn’t necessarily date it to the distant past:

“We have 25-30 buggies going past our house sometimes on Sundays.”

Andrea White wondered if the presence of curbs in the picture would help date it. That may very be a good clue, and I’ll have to follow up on it at some point in the future.

Les Marlatt had some good information regarding the column featuring a picture of a gas station in Fredericktown which used to feature a Gertie the Dinosaur logo.

“The ‘machine’ to the left of the pumps looks like an oil storage hutch,” Les wrote. “These were common back when full service included checking your oil level. The attendant could grab a quart without going back into the station.”

Then Les also caught me in a mistake that I have done repeatedly over the years. He noted that I had a direction backward: “Also the only truck I see is to the right, not the left.” 

Although I’ve devoted myself to writing in recent years, for many years I directed theater in Mansfield and Mount Vernon. One of the common features of directing is that when telling actors where to move on stage, I have to reverse the directions to the actors’ point of view. 

So, when I wanted an actor to move to the right as I saw it, I had to tell the actor to move “stage left.” That way they’d move to their left, but my right. After years of doing that, I developed a tendency to flip directions automatically, and it still happens often enough today that my friends often have to correct me and say things like, “No, your other left.”

Gertie the dinosaur still rides in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, where one of the handlers this year, Eric Boyer, saw the History Knox column that referenced Gertie’s previous employment as a logo at a Fredericktown gas station. (Images courtesy of Eric Boyer.)

Most amazingly of all, that column brought some eyewitness pictures of Gertie the Dinosaur from this year’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Reader Eric Boyer was actually one of the balloon handlers steering Gertie during the parade this year, which turned out to be an absolutely drenched one!

Congratulations to Eric and the rest of the team for keeping that brontosaurus on course under such conditions.

“I thought I would share with you some pictures from my experience as a balloon handler in the 2024 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade,” Eric wrote in to our Ashland Source page.

“Unfortunately it was very wet this year and photo opportunities were very limited. If you look very, very closely I am under Gertie’s left foot.”

Thanks so much for sharing these up-close photos!

And thanks to all our readers for their continued readership, valuable contributions, and patient corrections. You always make these columns richer with your comments.