EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the final story from Taylor Wilson, a Van Buren Township resident. His stories first appeared in “Brown County Remembers,” a Brown County Historical Society publication.
At one time there were railroad surveys made in Van Buren Township.
One came through Stone Head up the hollow south and down the hollow in front of my house. Then one was made up of Hurricane Hollow. It was heading for Freetown. Wish I knew more about the surveys. A D. C. Moore told me about the Hurricane survey and what the rise was per 100 feet. I’ve heard Dad talk about the other one. It was made in Freetown.
There was also an interurban survey made from Columbus out through Bellsville, Pike’s Peak, Stone Head, Story and on into Bloomington. There was adverse criticism about railroads coming through Brown County. Argument: they would take the land out of taxation. People didn’t realize the railroad paid taxes.
The fox hunters meet was so important that school was dismissed on Thursday and Friday for the event.
Timber was always an asset to Brown County. In the 1800s and 1900s, staves and hoop pole operations were carried on, also tanbark for the tanneries in Brown County and Columbus. But there was no money in it. Brown County people would take a load of staves to Columbus and get $1.50 of which they had to pay 25 cents to get into town. Toll gates two miles west and two miles south charged 25 cents to get through.
Virgin Popular was cut off at Miser Wilson’s place on Orchard Road after Dad and Mom bought the place where I now live. Miser boarded at Mom’s. He would go to the branch and wash his socks. He died soon after that and they found $6,000 strapped around him. Virgin white oak was cut off of Grandma Wilson’s place after she died. Virgin white oak we cut off of government land before Dad bought it in 1913. Other virgin oak and timber was cut off of the old Wilson home place in 1917-18, owned by George Schwab at that time.
It was a big operation. Lumber was hauled to Freetown by teams of horses. The lumber included what they called car stock and automobile top stays. They wasted half of it. Sawmills were everywhere in the 1920’s.
There was a lot of controversy over the game preserve and state park. If a state park had been left up to the Brown County vote, it would have been defeated overwhelmingly.
For some reason, the county council had to appropriate money to buy some land to give to the state to get the park started. The state couldn’t buy the land, but had to have it given to them as a gift. That’s one reason the trouble started. There were seven councilmen, three were against the deal and three were for the deal. Dad was on the fence. He wanted to do what was best. And did the lobbyists for and against the park ever work on him.
Arguments against were: taking land out of taxation and taking people’s homes. Arguments for were: to make work and bring people into the county. Dad finally voted for the park and that was his demise from the council, and old friends and neighbors turned against him.
Lee Bright did take the council and officeholders and buy them ice cream. I got in on that. The park did mean work for a few years for some Brown County people. It did bring people in who built and helped pay taxes. But the first thing they wanted were new roads and new schools, which cost more than their added taxes.
When Felix Brummett (1864 – 1952) was young, a lot of men and boys did night hunting and trapping for furs. After the hunting season, Felix would drive over the county in a buggy and buy people’s furs. He would stay all night wherever dark caught him.
He stayed all night once with a family near Stone Head. He got up early and drove past Christiansburg Schoolhouse before any of us kids got there. The janitor was there and let Felix in to warm up. Felix put some writing exercises on the blackboard like the old Palmer method that we used to use. They were perfect. He told the janitor to tell the kids some old hillbilly did that.
When he was clerk of the court he prepared some of his meals in the office on the stove. The courthouse was heated with wood back then. Each office had its burn stoves. Felix also used to wash his feet in the courthouse office.
It seems many Brown County settlers came from Belmont County, Ohio. All my grandparents were born there. And their progenitors came from Maryland to Belmont County. Mom’s maternal line came from Pennsylvania. It’s a long story and to make it short there was a trek from Maryland from worn-out land to Belmont County, Ohio to new land, 1819-1815. Then by the same token about 1850 there was a trek to Brown County to the new land.
Submitted by Pauline Hoover, Brown County Historical Society
