Buying Dynamite at the Bolenbaugh's
By Rich Shull 2007 from Columbus Ohio
KA BOOM! Honestly until the mid 1960s you could buy dynamite at the Bolenbaugh Hardware in Canal Winchester. Dynamite has many uses in a sleepy little town and it was used to clean out creek banks and even responsible for a few basements in town. Years ago and far away before 911 and other world events dynamite could be brought here in the Americas. There were no questions asked anyone could buy it and I'm not even sure you had to record your name or sign a thing. Bolenbaugh's kept it in a separate building out in their parking lot.
As a 3-4 year old I remember the most of the dynamite events in the warmer months when our neighbor George Shoemaker a farmer was using dynamite to clean the trees out his creek bank about 1/2 a mile from our place. Some of my first memories were of our house shaking and looking out the dining room window to see a ploom of smoke and dust and occasionally a tree flying threw mid air. You must admit he had the cleanest section of creek bank around. One got the idea more than once George enjoyed the blasting. Lockville was and still is to some degree surrounded by corn fields. Few people in town look out and see their neighbors home with in a foot or two of theirs.
Even as late as 1994 when I was down at the creek working from his under water bridge testing a boat motor I built I could look up the creek bank and see where the tree line was much younger that the rest of area a tribute to his explosive habits. His family still owns the property today.
Digging a basement!
As for basements former residents the Stambaugh's lived on Broad St. in one of Lockville's old log cabins and as part of modernizing the place a basement was added so a furnace could be installed in the building. My dad Jerry tells me of how he cleaned the dirt out of the basement a little bit at a time one summer. Howard Stambaugh would place 1/4 stick of dynamite in the ground under his house and then make sure everyone was out of the place and the good dishes were packed away and KA BOOM. When the dust settled there were several loads of dirt to be hauled out from under the house. My Dad job (he was teenager) was to get all the dirt out from under the house during the day and prepare for the next night's blasting. When Howard got home he would set the new 1/4 stick charges. It is a tribute to the structure of a log cabin that it with stood all those explosions and even still stands to this day (2007). The current owner might not realize just how strong their home really is.
Innocence Lost
About 1965 or so It became very hard to get dynamite and for sure you could no longer get it at the hardware store. I guess the age of innocence was coming to a close. These days if a terrorist wants to do a job it seems they just use diesel fuel and fertilizer or something worse and get the same effect. Still It is probably for the best dynamite is regulated these days.
I never dreamed the early morning wake up call of George blasting would ever be fondly remembered but just as the Omar Bakery Truck and the Milkman delivered Milk and bread directly to our house the blasting days also came to a close. We also had a wonderful Sohio fuel oil delivery guy named Dick McDonald and he knew everyone like we were all his friends. He would sign our delivery slips and then add his initial to our forged signature. I remember the first time I was able to sign the delivery receipt,, It was so cool I was 7 or 8 and the only one home when he delivered a load of fuel oil and he said you can sign this! I felt so grown up!
Friday, July 20, 2007
Thursday, July 5, 2007
1937 Phone Service Arrives
PARTY LINES
Perhaps some readers have seen the famous Normal Rockwell Painting on the old Saturday Evening Post Cover that showed lots of people all gathered around a old wall phone ,,, well listening to the local gossip?
Lockville, got phone service in 1937 and all the lines in town were party lines. People today could not even fathom a party line or even anything like the TV show of the Era Green Acres where you had to climb the pole to get the phone. Party lines for the uninformed were simply up to 3 or 4 people sharing the same phone line. When you made a call in those days you picked up your phone and listened for others talking and if the line was clear you dialed your number. However as was sometimes the case one talkative soul was always on the phone and you never get your call out. That sometimes was a big pain in the butt but at other times the online hen party rivals any computer chat room of today. It was after all real live local gossip. Sometimes I wonder if people didn't purposely spred a bit of gossip online just for flavor if nothing else. I am reminded of the old TV show HEE HAW where one of the songs they sang included the phrase, "Were not ones to spread gossip so you better listen close the first time."
Grandma still had the same phone number and party line until she died in 1994 and her number was 837 -4915. Her last few years she had a private line by default as there was simply no one else to share it with. She was never charged for a private line. Grandma did her share of listnening in and often times I seen her at her kitchem wall phone listeneing in and motioining for me to be quiet as she was on the phone, well not on her call but someone elses. Slaming the storm door of yelling, Hi Grandma would have been pretty obvious. For many years she shared her line with the Boyers and then the Ricketts that rented the Boyer place for a few years. She learned a lot of local stuff via those tapped conversations and indeed in that era when one went to visit a "sick aunt" in a distant place it was code for she was having a child out of wedlock.
I remember Grandma running across a lady in Canal Winchester in Conrad's Market once while I was shopping with her. I remember Grandma giving her giving her a hug and saying hi and mentioing to the lady you have been threw a lot. The only thing I was told she was away visiting her aunt. Did she learn of the odeal on the phone. They both grinned when a certian guy's name was brought up. Perhaps he was the father of more than one child?
In that Era things were a bit different and party lines still worked, Smart people kept their business off the line and others used it as the underground social network of the time. I suspect more good than harm came from the use of a party line as it was also somewhat like a coffessional as well. I can remember everyone on Grandma's Line haveing Christmas Chats and exchanging greetings and even talking among them selves which familes need a little Christmas cheer.
Perhaps some readers have seen the famous Normal Rockwell Painting on the old Saturday Evening Post Cover that showed lots of people all gathered around a old wall phone ,,, well listening to the local gossip?
Lockville, got phone service in 1937 and all the lines in town were party lines. People today could not even fathom a party line or even anything like the TV show of the Era Green Acres where you had to climb the pole to get the phone. Party lines for the uninformed were simply up to 3 or 4 people sharing the same phone line. When you made a call in those days you picked up your phone and listened for others talking and if the line was clear you dialed your number. However as was sometimes the case one talkative soul was always on the phone and you never get your call out. That sometimes was a big pain in the butt but at other times the online hen party rivals any computer chat room of today. It was after all real live local gossip. Sometimes I wonder if people didn't purposely spred a bit of gossip online just for flavor if nothing else. I am reminded of the old TV show HEE HAW where one of the songs they sang included the phrase, "Were not ones to spread gossip so you better listen close the first time."
Grandma still had the same phone number and party line until she died in 1994 and her number was 837 -4915. Her last few years she had a private line by default as there was simply no one else to share it with. She was never charged for a private line. Grandma did her share of listnening in and often times I seen her at her kitchem wall phone listeneing in and motioining for me to be quiet as she was on the phone, well not on her call but someone elses. Slaming the storm door of yelling, Hi Grandma would have been pretty obvious. For many years she shared her line with the Boyers and then the Ricketts that rented the Boyer place for a few years. She learned a lot of local stuff via those tapped conversations and indeed in that era when one went to visit a "sick aunt" in a distant place it was code for she was having a child out of wedlock.
I remember Grandma running across a lady in Canal Winchester in Conrad's Market once while I was shopping with her. I remember Grandma giving her giving her a hug and saying hi and mentioing to the lady you have been threw a lot. The only thing I was told she was away visiting her aunt. Did she learn of the odeal on the phone. They both grinned when a certian guy's name was brought up. Perhaps he was the father of more than one child?
In that Era things were a bit different and party lines still worked, Smart people kept their business off the line and others used it as the underground social network of the time. I suspect more good than harm came from the use of a party line as it was also somewhat like a coffessional as well. I can remember everyone on Grandma's Line haveing Christmas Chats and exchanging greetings and even talking among them selves which familes need a little Christmas cheer.
Gone Fishing Lockville style
GREAT BALLS OF FIRE!
Back when the interurban an electric trolley came threw Lockville, the traction line as it was called ran along the former Samuel's Driveway that once led to the Jefferson Springs bottled Water company (Samuel's Home) .This also is parallels the Lockville Canal and as a result there were little ponds occasionally that were once part of the canal. In the 1920s the traction line complete with its live third rail and proximity to old canal ponds made for a natural fish fry.
More than one Lockville resident went fishing by taking a big cable and putting one end of it in the water and the other via stick or post on the hot traction line and well the next thing you know dinner was floating up to greet you. This gave all new meaning to the term Fish Fry.
The interurban dried up with the depression and the ponds were drained but still when you travel threw Lockville today all you need to do is follow the BIG Major power poles on the back side of the park (west side of town) and that was the route of the interurban.
Who ever dreamed Lockville the sleepy little town time continues to forget had such a hot-wire past?
Back when the interurban an electric trolley came threw Lockville, the traction line as it was called ran along the former Samuel's Driveway that once led to the Jefferson Springs bottled Water company (Samuel's Home) .This also is parallels the Lockville Canal and as a result there were little ponds occasionally that were once part of the canal. In the 1920s the traction line complete with its live third rail and proximity to old canal ponds made for a natural fish fry.
More than one Lockville resident went fishing by taking a big cable and putting one end of it in the water and the other via stick or post on the hot traction line and well the next thing you know dinner was floating up to greet you. This gave all new meaning to the term Fish Fry.
The interurban dried up with the depression and the ponds were drained but still when you travel threw Lockville today all you need to do is follow the BIG Major power poles on the back side of the park (west side of town) and that was the route of the interurban.
Who ever dreamed Lockville the sleepy little town time continues to forget had such a hot-wire past?
Another Roscoe Village?
Stardom Revoked! "We don't want no tourist traps here" Snote Burke 1967? Lockville resident.
For those familiar with the attractions of Ohio, N.E. Ohio has Roscoe Village a restored operating Canal Town . The restored canal town is at the northern limits of the Ohio and Erie Canal and Lockville was one of the last points on the canal before it hit the Scioto River. I was a snip of a lad at the time the amusement park prospectors came threw town, this was probably in 1967 scouting out Lockville as a possible tourist trap. (as the locals seen it). I heard the comments on the day they showed up as I rode my little lime green groovy Huffy bike threw town and talked with Harry Myers junior a local cabinet maker and our next door neighbor and my Dad's best friend. Harry and possibly Junior Stambaugh (not sure) and Ed Baker another neighbor were talking over the idea and they mentioned things such as Kings Island in Cincinnati (just being built). The developers were intrigued with Lockville and its proximity to Columbus and also how amazingly intact it was (still is) as an 1800's village. They talked how easy it would be to refill the canal and repair the locks and turn it into a Thomas Kincaid picture post card type of place.
They were talking of already built highway and the possibility of hotels and conference centers. All of this was pretty big news to a sleepy little town the frankly liked its pass me on by reputation. Weather by design or default the prospectors were privileged to talk with on Snote Burke one of the oldest most colorful characters living at the time. I guess Snote,might have met them on his porch and treated them like nosey flatlanders with a shoo-in Iron thinking they were "Insurance Peddlers" but, from what Harry said the welcome mat was not exactly obvious when talking with him.
Perhaps the scouts were from the Ohio Historical Society, In Columbus?
So it seems Lockville's chance at making it big in 1960 something seems to have vanished just about quick as it presented itself. Perhaps it is just as well as slow progress finally yielded fire hydrants in 1996. They were just as shocking to the locals as any amusement park would have been. By the 1990s Lockville was still as sleepy as ever but the Fairfield County Water system was born and the pipe went threw Lockville by default. Most thing happend in Lockville by default. The local church the former one room school house now with stained glass windows (making it a church) got a parking lot out of the left over gravel pile the county made there while storing gravel for the water lines. Lockville is surrounded my many million dollar properties today and the progress is happening no matter how Lockville tires to avoid it. It is all part of the urban sprawl from Columbus. As the water tower grew up making a presence like a possible amusement park ride would have done, the local wells typically hand dug wells in the range of 25 foot all dried up. Just as the wells dried up in 1996, the chances of being a Roscoe Village did in 1960 something.
Time remembers and time forgets, time forgives and time forgets but time never tells you what might have been.
Rich Shull, 2007 , Columbus Ohio
For those familiar with the attractions of Ohio, N.E. Ohio has Roscoe Village a restored operating Canal Town . The restored canal town is at the northern limits of the Ohio and Erie Canal and Lockville was one of the last points on the canal before it hit the Scioto River. I was a snip of a lad at the time the amusement park prospectors came threw town, this was probably in 1967 scouting out Lockville as a possible tourist trap. (as the locals seen it). I heard the comments on the day they showed up as I rode my little lime green groovy Huffy bike threw town and talked with Harry Myers junior a local cabinet maker and our next door neighbor and my Dad's best friend. Harry and possibly Junior Stambaugh (not sure) and Ed Baker another neighbor were talking over the idea and they mentioned things such as Kings Island in Cincinnati (just being built). The developers were intrigued with Lockville and its proximity to Columbus and also how amazingly intact it was (still is) as an 1800's village. They talked how easy it would be to refill the canal and repair the locks and turn it into a Thomas Kincaid picture post card type of place.
They were talking of already built highway and the possibility of hotels and conference centers. All of this was pretty big news to a sleepy little town the frankly liked its pass me on by reputation. Weather by design or default the prospectors were privileged to talk with on Snote Burke one of the oldest most colorful characters living at the time. I guess Snote,might have met them on his porch and treated them like nosey flatlanders with a shoo-in Iron thinking they were "Insurance Peddlers" but, from what Harry said the welcome mat was not exactly obvious when talking with him.
Perhaps the scouts were from the Ohio Historical Society, In Columbus?
So it seems Lockville's chance at making it big in 1960 something seems to have vanished just about quick as it presented itself. Perhaps it is just as well as slow progress finally yielded fire hydrants in 1996. They were just as shocking to the locals as any amusement park would have been. By the 1990s Lockville was still as sleepy as ever but the Fairfield County Water system was born and the pipe went threw Lockville by default. Most thing happend in Lockville by default. The local church the former one room school house now with stained glass windows (making it a church) got a parking lot out of the left over gravel pile the county made there while storing gravel for the water lines. Lockville is surrounded my many million dollar properties today and the progress is happening no matter how Lockville tires to avoid it. It is all part of the urban sprawl from Columbus. As the water tower grew up making a presence like a possible amusement park ride would have done, the local wells typically hand dug wells in the range of 25 foot all dried up. Just as the wells dried up in 1996, the chances of being a Roscoe Village did in 1960 something.
Time remembers and time forgets, time forgives and time forgets but time never tells you what might have been.
Rich Shull, 2007 , Columbus Ohio
Lockville Ohio (2007)
Lockville Legends - a living wide spot in the road-with a silent colorful history dating from the 1830's.A time capsule of Lockville Ohio written in 2007 by Rich Shull (former resident)and by other members of the community. This is a living history project, please feel free to join in or write a piece of your own. Please be kind and keep deep personal issues to a minimum.
Lockville Ohio was established in a land grant in the 1840s (?) the land grant is rumored to have connection to Thomas Jefferson. (hence the near by Jefferson Road)? Lockville was home of the some of the last canal locks on the Ohio and Erie Canal. Further on down the line from Lockville was the village of Lockbourne, they had the last locks of the canal before it dumped into the Scioto River.Lockville is located in Ohio Usa and is 30 miles SE of Columbus between Canal Winchester and Carroll Ohio. Lockville today (2007) still has 7 canal locks still mostly visible and in reasonable repair left over from the Ohio and Eire Canal.
The Lockville Park preserves 3 locks and hosts a covered bridge moved there in 1967 when the bridge was removed from service. The bridge now spans the remnants of the canal in a very picturesque park. Seemingly hundreds and thousands of people pass by Lockville every day mostly on the highway that by passes (US. 33) the town but even those that drive threw it miss the details the well hidden details. Many houses are log cabins built in the 1840's and today many have modern sidings and have additions to them but remove a bit of siding and plaster and your in the 1800's. Lockville once had a Stage Coach Inn that still stands (private residence) today. Perhaps the current owners are unaware of its history? It once hosted a silent picture movie house a church and a one room school house. ( the current church) . On the edge of town was Jefferson Springs Bottle water plant. (Samuel's Property) In the 1920's and before the Interburban (traction line) also went threw town and had a pick up in Lockville. It went from Lancaster to Groveport and on to Columbus. The noted Fruit Farm Hill over looks Lockville and has been a favorite Bicyclist challenge for years and is the highest point in Ohio between there and Lake Erie. (but not the highest point in Ohio)
The residents and former residents and those that passed threw on a regular basis might enjoy a look back to the place that many wanted to leave so bad and the onlookers from the web might get a chuckle out of the antics of a super small town. Please read over the details of our community and e mail me with more details If you have them. This is kind of the Garrison Keeler (NPR, Parrie Home Companion) saga of Lockville.
Feel free to add your part to our Lockville history by adding a comment to this blog or my writing me directly . Best Rich Shull rsschull@aol.com
As time goes by I wish to add documents and pictures If you have any please let me know. thanks... Rich
Lockville Ohio was established in a land grant in the 1840s (?) the land grant is rumored to have connection to Thomas Jefferson. (hence the near by Jefferson Road)? Lockville was home of the some of the last canal locks on the Ohio and Erie Canal. Further on down the line from Lockville was the village of Lockbourne, they had the last locks of the canal before it dumped into the Scioto River.Lockville is located in Ohio Usa and is 30 miles SE of Columbus between Canal Winchester and Carroll Ohio. Lockville today (2007) still has 7 canal locks still mostly visible and in reasonable repair left over from the Ohio and Eire Canal.
The Lockville Park preserves 3 locks and hosts a covered bridge moved there in 1967 when the bridge was removed from service. The bridge now spans the remnants of the canal in a very picturesque park. Seemingly hundreds and thousands of people pass by Lockville every day mostly on the highway that by passes (US. 33) the town but even those that drive threw it miss the details the well hidden details. Many houses are log cabins built in the 1840's and today many have modern sidings and have additions to them but remove a bit of siding and plaster and your in the 1800's. Lockville once had a Stage Coach Inn that still stands (private residence) today. Perhaps the current owners are unaware of its history? It once hosted a silent picture movie house a church and a one room school house. ( the current church) . On the edge of town was Jefferson Springs Bottle water plant. (Samuel's Property) In the 1920's and before the Interburban (traction line) also went threw town and had a pick up in Lockville. It went from Lancaster to Groveport and on to Columbus. The noted Fruit Farm Hill over looks Lockville and has been a favorite Bicyclist challenge for years and is the highest point in Ohio between there and Lake Erie. (but not the highest point in Ohio)
The residents and former residents and those that passed threw on a regular basis might enjoy a look back to the place that many wanted to leave so bad and the onlookers from the web might get a chuckle out of the antics of a super small town. Please read over the details of our community and e mail me with more details If you have them. This is kind of the Garrison Keeler (NPR, Parrie Home Companion) saga of Lockville.
Feel free to add your part to our Lockville history by adding a comment to this blog or my writing me directly . Best Rich Shull rsschull@aol.com
As time goes by I wish to add documents and pictures If you have any please let me know. thanks... Rich
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