AMESVILLE, OHIO, AND HEADING EAST (Mark)

 

​Utilizing the blue-highway system, we arrived in Amesville, Ohio, population about 168 souls, down from a high of around 200. 

The town was established in 1837.  ​

For such a small town, it has a fascinating history.

We love public libraries.  The Coonskin Library has an interesting history:

At an 1803 town meeting—held to discuss roads—settlers talked about t
heir desire for books and their lack of money to pay for them.

Most of the business was done by barter, so little money was in circulation. However, the surrounding forest had pelts that could be sold in the East t
to buy books.

In the spring of 1804, Samuel B. Brown was given the pelts and, accompanied by Ephraim Cutler, went east to bring back books for the town. Fifty-one books—mostly on religion, travel, biography and history—were purchased for $73.50.

​These books were passed from home to home until Ephraim Cutler was elected librarian in 1804.

(Wikipedia)

Absolutely worth reading in its entirety is this story about drunk hobo of very short stature who became mayor of the city in 1903.  (Amesville was a dry town.)

Amesville is unfortunately located in a low area of the region.  On June 28, 1998 the town received 10 inches of rain in one day.  The resulting floodwaters reached 15 feet of depth on Main Street.

​We came along this graveyard surrounded by rolling fields.  The older graves have become hard to impossible to read in many of these graveyards due to the hundreds of years of rain and weather working the granite. 

This was a very peaceful setting, but off in the distance you could hear the universal sound of kids playing at recess.

​Interesting enough the school was an Amish school with kids playing baseball and volleyball, girls in their dresses and bonnets, boys with suspenders.  Horses were tied in the shade of trees and the buggies parked nearby.

Mill Branch Covered Bridge was constructed in 1871 to cross the Little Hocking River.  It was moved to the Barlow Fairgrounds in 1980. 

For covered-bridge afficionados, it incorporates a Kingpost Truss.  We hope to travel a 35-mile trail of covered bridges in this area next spring.

Next, to Harmar Village.

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