Welcome to the WCHS blog. Where it all began.
By Rob Gorrell - Website person.
In November of 1966 the first issue, Vol. 1, No. 1 of the Tallow Light was published . 12 pages, with three hole punches and stapled together. The Archives and Collections still have some of these earliest issues. If you are interested in purchasing an issue please contact the archives at 740-373-1788.
It is my intention, from time to time, to post an excerpt from one of the Tallow Lights from some of the earlier issues of the Tallow Lights. I think it will be interesting to hear again from some of the local members and historians that have for these past decades, worked to study, and share the history of Washington County.
It seems a good place to start is with the opening of the first article:
IF WE ARE TOLD TO WANDER
They are all gone. You cannot recall the days when Amos Porter, plainly dressed, ambled in memories, five foot and ten. Nor may you remember that he was to become the last survivor of the intrepid “Forty-Eight” who sprang ashore the Northwest Territory in 1788. From a scrapbook, a newspaper article of 1899, by George Morgan Woodbridge, in the role of local historian tells:
Well-nigh seventy years ago I used to wander along the river banks through the streets of this old town listening with intense interest to the details of the history of by gone years, as they were related to me by old Amos Porter, said to have been the third to step upon dry land on the spot where Marietta now stands……
“To wander along the river banks through the streets of this old town,” sounds like a quaint, though half-forgotten echo…Popcorn and apple nights before an open fire may once have shaken hands with the homespun and grubbing days in tales of remembrance; but now most of us have forgotten even the crackling mirth of the open fire itself.”
Though that final line seems a bit forlorn. I think it is a good jumping off point for these blog posts.
One purpose of a good historical society is to continue to mine the rich history of the community.
For example, Amos Porter and the gang came ashore near where this archway was recently uncovered beside the Harmer Bridge ramp. What is it? When was it built? Why, By whom?
I see a future Tallow Light article that needs to be written by one of our members
