EDITOR'S NOTE: This story was originally published on Oct. 30, 2019 by the Ohio History Connection. Richland Source has entered into a collaborative agreement with the Ohio History Connection to share content across our sites.
LOUDONVILLE -- Loudonville native Danny Foster (1937-2014) was the first American to arrive in Vostok, Antarctica -- known as the coldest place on earth.
MOUNT VERNON -- When one thinks of electric-powered trolley cars, the place most likely to come to mind is San Francisco, California. But these peculiar conveyances once had widespread use across the U.S., including locally in Mount Vernon. Mount Vernon's era of cable cars lasted just under …
EDITOR'S NOTE: This story was originally published on April 16, 2011 by the Ohio History Connection. Richland Source has entered into a collaborative agreement with the Ohio History Connection to share content across our sites.
MOUNT VERNON -- Once a month, we feature a pair of vintage cabinet card photographs taken in Knox County which do not have names identifying the people in the pictures. They were all taken by photographers who had studios in Mount Vernon.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This story was originally published on Sept. 17, 2020 by the Ohio History Connection. Richland Source has entered into a collaborative agreement with the Ohio History Connection to share content across our sites.
PERRYSVILLE -- Jedediah Smith, who grew up in Perrysville, opened the west and changed the course of American history.
You all know by now that I love a good mystery. Remembering well-documented stories or photographs is a fun and necessary part of a local history column, but I derive a special delight from finding an interesting slice of life where absolutely nothing was documented before.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This story was originally published on Dec. 22, 2010 by the Ohio History Connection. Richland Source has entered into a collaborative agreement with the Ohio History Connection to share content across our sites. This particular piece was also enhanced with relevant data about Coshocton attorney Noah Haynes Swayne, the second Supreme Court Justice from Ohio.
LOUDONVILLE -- On Oct. 18, 1973, north central ohio residents witnessed strange lights in the sky to the west over Charles Mill Lake.
On the sweltering and sun-baked weekend that this column is first being published, we can all relate to Knox County famer Harvey Devoe, who began fighting a long battle with drought in July of 1861.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This story was originally published in June, 2017 by the Ohio History Connection. Richland Source has entered into a collaborative agreement with the Ohio History Connection to share content across our sites.
MOUNT VERNON -- Old postcards are a wonderful source of period images, and there are many of Mount Vernon floating around among postcard collectors. The larger postcard printers flooded the market with certain images, which remain common.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This story was originally published on April 14, 2020 by the Ohio History Connection. Richland Source has entered into a collaborative agreement with the Ohio History Connection to share content across our sites.
MOUNT VERNON -- Once a month, we feature a pair of vintage cabinet card photographs taken in Knox County which do not have names identifying the people in the pictures. They were all taken by photographers who had studios in Mount Vernon. Cabinet cards were a popular format for sharing photo…
EDITOR'S NOTE: This story was originally published on Oct. 1, 2018 by the Ohio History Connection. Richland Source has entered into a collaborative agreement with the Ohio History Connection to share content across our sites.
LOUDONVILLE -- On Dec. 17 2007, the Loudonville Uglification Committee took steps to "maintain the town's unpleasant appearance," by preserving a pile of overflowing garbage bags.
MOUNT VERNON -- Summer vacation is over and school is back in session -- as much as it can be, anyway, in these days of pandemic.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This story was originally published on May 1, 2020 by the Ohio History Connection. Richland Source has entered into a collaborative agreement with the Ohio History Connection to share content across our sites.
LOUDONVILLE -- The Mohican area once had its own gold rush, about 130 years ago.
On the sweltering and sun-baked weekend that this column is first being published, we can all relate to Knox County famer Harvey Devoe, who began fighting a long battle with drought in July of 1861.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This story was originally publilshed on Aug. 27, 2020 by the Ohio History Connection. Richland Source has entered into a collaborative agreement with the Ohio History Connection to share content across our sites.
LOUDONVILLE -- If you don't know the exploits of Frank Ellis, take a moment to appreciate the part he played in American military history.
BROWN TOWNSHIP -- The ravages of Time are brutal, but sometimes a glimpse of the past can be snatched from the debris.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This story was originally published on May 11, 2020 by the Ohio History Connection. Richland Source has entered into a collaborative agreement with the Ohio History Connection to share content across our sites.
MOUNT VERNON -- Once a month, we feature a pair of vintage cabinet card photographs taken in Knox County which do not have names identifying the people in the pictures. They were all taken by photographers who had studios in Mount Vernon.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This story was originally published on May 4, 2020 by the Ohio History Connection. Richland Source has entered into a collaborative agreement with the Ohio History Connection to share content across our sites.
LOUDONVILLE -- Before Kettering and Flxible's rise to fame that put Loudonville on the map, another inventor and businessman attempted to leave his mark on the world by building an empire in his hometown.
MOUNT VERNON -- The news of the sale of the Mount Vernon News last week was a stunner, bringing to an end local ownership of a franchise that had run in its current incarnation for over 80 years. But the newspaper's true history continued further back, in one form or another, to before the C…
EDITOR'S NOTE: This story was originally published on March 19, 2020 by the Ohio History Connection. Richland Source has entered into a collaborative agreement with the Ohio History Connection to share content across our sites. This blog post will take a look at a historic pandemic in Ohio. As our lives change to fight COVID-19, this can be a tough topic. Please put this post aside for later if the topic is too heavy to carry at the moment.
LOUDONVILLE -- In 1961, Dick Frye introduced the idea of canoe rentals to Ohio when he opened The Mohican Canoe Livery south of Loudonville.
CENTERBURG -- How can a place be long-gone, yet still hanging around?
EDITOR'S NOTE: This story originally published on Richland Source in 2014.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This story was originally published on May 11, 2020 by the Ohio History Connection. Richland Source has entered into a collaborative agreement with the Ohio History Connection to share content across our sites. This story will take a look at a historic pandemic in Ohio. As our lives change to fight COVID-19, this can be a tough topic. Please put this post aside for later if the topic is too heavy to carry at the moment.
On the sweltering and sun-baked weekend that this column is first being published, we can all relate to Knox County famer Harvey Devoe, who began fighting a long battle with drought in July of 1861.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This story was originally published on May 8, 2020 by the Ohio History Connection. Richland Source has entered into a collaborative agreement with the Ohio History Connection to share content across our sites.
MOUNT VERNON -- If you've been following History Knox this long, you've probably detected one of my themes: There weren't really any good old days.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This story was originally published on May 22, 2020 by the Ohio History Connection. Richland Source has entered into a collaborative agreement with the Ohio History Connection to share content across our sites.
MOUNT VERNON -- Once a month, we feature a pair of vintage cabinet card photographs taken in Knox County which do not have names identifying the people in the pictures.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This story was originally published on Feb. 12, 2016 by Ohio Memory, a collaborative program of the Ohio History Connection and the State Library of Ohio. Richland Source has entered into a collaborative agreement with the Ohio History Connection to share content across our sites.
MOUNT VERNON -- Collaborative journalism is fun, and several readers have jumped into the mystery posted a couple of weeks ago about a person apparently attending a funeral in Mount Vernon, and losing his or her hat in the process.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This story was originally published on July 1, 2020 by the Ohio History Connection. Knox Pages has entered into a collaborative agreement with the Ohio History Connection to share content across our sites.
On the sweltering and sun-baked weekend that this column is first being published, we can all relate to Knox County famer Harvey Devoe, who began fighting a long battle with drought in July of 1861.
A vintage postcard preserves a glimpse of one of life's little dramas, but leaves us in the dark about whom it happened to.
MOUNT VERNON -- Once a month, we feature a pair of vintage cabinet card photographs taken in Knox County which do not have names identifying the people in the pictures.
LOUDONVILLE -- In the 1950s the Flxible Company began manufacturing an 11-column cigarette vending machine for the Mercury Vending Company of Cleveland.
The Morris Chapel Cemetery is one of the prettiest and best-kept country graveyards in Knox County. Located on Hyatt Road right off Old Mansfield Road northeast of Mount Vernon, the small cemetery was originally the graveyard for Morris Chapel, which is now a private residence.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the sixth installment in our year-long examination of the adventures of Knox County farmer Harvey Devoe, who kept a diary for the year 1861, which has been annotated and published by historian Alan Borer and is available through online retailers. The series began on J…
MOUNT VERNON -- Last week, we looked at a souvenir from the 1899-1900 term of Sunny Side School in Monroe Township. The photo of that souvenir caught the eye of reader Aaron James of Pike Township, who has a similar souvenir.
LOUDONVILLE -- Loudonville native Charles Kettering invented the world's first guided missile -- then called a flying bomb -- in 1918, nearly 26 years before the Germans debuted the V-1 flying bomb.
LOUDONVILLE -- Loudonville native Charles Kettering invented the world's first guided missile -- then called a flying bomb -- in 1918, nearly 26 years before the Germans debuted the V-1 flying bomb.
ASHLAND -- Signs were erected and nearly every business in Ashland took out an ad in local newspapers to acknowledge the Ashland homecoming of Col. Robert (Bob) Clyde Springer in late May, 1989.
MOUNT VERNON -- Sue Lindsey of the Black Walnut Holler antique shop in Mount Vernon recently posted a photograph in the Knox Time group on Facebook.
MOUNT VERNON -- This week we debut a new recurring feature which will occupy us for about a year and a half. Once a month, we will be featuring a pair of vintage cabinet card photographs taken in Knox County which do not have names identifying the people in the pictures.
LOUDONVILLE -- The First National Bank of Loudonville once issued legal U.S. currency bearing its, and the town's, name.
GAMBIER -- The Civil War tore the United States apart. Many families and friends were split on ideological lines, some supporting the North, others the South.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the fourth installment in our year-long examination of the adventures of Knox County farmer Harvey Devoe, who kept a diary for the year 1861, which has been annotated and published by historian Alan Borer and is available through online retailers. The series began on J…
LOUDONVILLE -- Louis Bromfield, local author and conservationist, was well known for hosting Hollywood elites at his farm, but he was also close friends with many literary figures.
SPARTA -- Back when I used to labor away in the news mines at the Mount Vernon News, I always enjoyed the assignments of covering small-town festivals. All you had to do was show up, observe, get a picture, and then drive — slowly — back to the newsroom.
MOUNT VERNON -- A. Banning Norton's History of Knox County, Ohio, from 1779 to 1862 Inclusive is a storyteller's dream and a historian's nightmare.
LOUDONVILLE -- In 1948, Eugene "Jeep" Allerding, of Loudonville, suddenly fell ill from a severe attack of the polio virus.
Ask any old timer about life in Fredericktown and Fink's drugstore will surface sooner or later. The store, located at 115 North Main Street, was a local fixture for many years, run by Charles F. Fink and later by his son, Norman.
LOUDONVILLE -- In early January, 1949, the majority of residents in Loudonville fell violently ill. Over 225 students alone were absent from schools with an unknown sickness, but the illness affected nearly all ages in the community.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the fourth installment in our year-long examination of the adventures of Knox County farmer Harvey Devoe, who kept a diary for the year 1861, which has been annotated and published by historian Alan Borer and is available through online retailers. The series began on J…
MOUNT VERNON -- Browsing the Knox Time collection of photographs on Facebook, I noticed a picture that had been posted asking for estimations of the date.
MOUNT VERNON -- Viral epidemics come and go, with one occasionally becoming such a nuisance, it effectively shuts down the world for a while.
What do stories matter? In a world where we're busy trying to head off contagion and its associated economic problems, maybe stories don't seem so important.
LOUDONVILLE -- If you were a fan of crossword puzzles in the 1960s, and found yourself stuck on such ambiguous definitions as "Dickens character," "African boat," "oleoresin" and "Peleg's father" you had Loudonville resident George Frank to thank for your misery.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the third installment in our year-long examination of the adventures of Knox County farmer Harvey Devoe, who kept a diary for the year 1861, which has been annotated and published by historian Alan Borer and is available through online retailers. The series began on Ja…
LOUDONVILLE -- One Loudonville neighborhood was once -- and occasionally still is -- referred to as Black Town. Despite what many may think, this designation was not derived from the skin color of its inhabitants, nor the color of the soil ... but rather from the passing trains.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This is Part II of a series that began last week at this link.
ASHLAND -- Thomas C. Vanosdall, Sr. was born on July 19, 1911, here in Ashland. He was the son of Charles and Maude Burns Vanosdall.
MOUNT VERNON -- Whether it's a matter of choice or fate, some people collect drama the way others collect knick-knacks.
MOUNT VERNON -- Valentine's Day, 1910, was a heart-breaker for Mount Vernon.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the third in a gradually unfolding series of articles about the ancient prehistory of the area. Later articles will look at the Native American residents of Knox County around the time that white settlers moved into the region. Part 1 published on Dec. 29, 2018. Part 2…
EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the second installment in our year-long examination of the adventures of Knox County farmer Harvey Devoe, who kept a diary for the year 1861, which has been annotated and published by historian Alan Borer and is available through online retailers. The series began on J…
CENTERBURG -- One of the hazards of historical research is what I call “The BS Factor.” Back in a time when it was not so easy to cross-check information, stories sometimes ended up in print that had no factual basis whatsoever.
Henrietta "Jennie" Bull Culver was born in 1846 to Thomas and Sarah Bull (who lived in the beautiful brick home next to the fountain in Central Park).
MOUNT VERNON -- Most of the hamlets of Knox County have histories that stretch back well into the 1800s. Not Artanna.
Dick Cox was born July 25, 1928. He grew up in Mansfield's Woodland neighborhood, graduated from Mansfield Senior, and earned an appointment to West Point. He was last seen Jan. 14, 1950, when he was just 21 years old. No one really knows what happened to him after that night.
LOUDONVILLE -- Before the dawn of the automobile era, everyone relied heavily on horses for transportation.
MOUNT VERNON -- There's an old saying that says some things never change. The weather's not one of them, though, for if this winter continues like it has the last few weeks, we won't see the exact accident described in this column reenacted any time soon.
PERRYSVILLE -- In 1854, Perrysville and surrounding Green Township were home to no less than nine commercial distilleries.
In the fall of 1987, Alan Borer, a recent college graduate with an interest in rural history, was browsing at a flea market in southeastern Ohio. At one table, he picked up a small, leather-bound volume. It was a diary kept by Knox County farmer Harvey Devoe (1828-1914) in 1861.
LOUDONVILLE -- Loudonville was once the home to one of America's most beloved comedy acts, the Madge Kinsey Players.
MOUNT VERNON -- Whether in its modern incarnation or one of its earlier versions, the Curtis Hotel has dominated the square in Mount Vernon for over 140 years.
August Imgard, of Wooster, was once widely credited as the first person to bring the Christmas tree to America.
LOUDONVILLE -- Loudonville High School once had an Audio/Visual Club that operated a local cable channel for the Loudonville community.
MOUNT VERNON -- Cars are so common today, it's easy to forget that even though they were invented in the late 1800s, it was still quite a while before they became common.
