This vintage postcard photo was taken from the water tower on the square in Fredericktown, around 1910. Credit: Ohio Memories Facebook group

History Knox

Mark Sebastian Jordan authors a column each Saturday reflecting on the history of the community.

FREDERICKTOWN — Here’s an interesting vintage postcard that captures an unusual view of Fredericktown.

The photo, from around 1910 or so, captures an aerial view of the town in a way that would be easy today with the use of a drone.

But in those days, mechanical flight was still a new concept, and the only easy way such a view could be captured would be by climbing up the water tower — and that’s what the unknown photographer of this picture did.

The 1896 Knox County Atlas provides a good map of Fredericktown. The location of the high school is marked here with a blue circle, while the location of the water tower is marked with a red star.

That water tower used to sit in the middle of the intersection in Fredericktown’s public square.

I’m not sure when it was torn down, but I have a photo of downtown from 1908 that shows it still in place.

It’s remarkable what the photographer did to get this shot, because cameras of that period tended to be bulky.

This 1908 photo shows the water tower which used to sit in the square in the Fredericktown.

Because of the writing on the photo, this gives the appearance of a standard glass-plate photo of the period, which means the photographer had to climb the tower carrying a heavy pack that included camera, glass plates, and a tripod.

But the effort paid off in a fine shot of the town, looking northwest.

I would suppose if the photographer was able to carry multiple plates, he (or she — there was at least one female photographer working in the region at the time) would most likely have taken multiple shots.

The larger structure on the left is the high school, at the end of College Avenue, built after the 1871 atlas, but in place by the time the 1896 atlas was published.

If the view of this photo had extended a little further right, we would have caught Bell Foundry on the edge of town. Whoever sent this postcard has marked a structure in the distance, possibly beyond the edge of town.

The probable farmhouse marked with an ‘x’ on the postcard is the O’Connor farm (circled in green), in Wayne township just outside of Fredericktown. The farm is today the sight of a roofing company.

That farmhouse might be on what is marked in the 1896 atlas as the Zent property (remembered in the name Zent Avenue, which marked the edge of the parcel), though no structure is within the city limits at that time.

Therefore, the ‘x’ might actually be on the O’Connor farmhouse, just outside the city limits of the day, today the location of the Revere Roofing Company.

Whatever the case, it remains an outstanding early photo of Fredericktown, and stands as a tribute to the photographer, known only as “J.”