The next meeting of the Knox County Historical Society will be held on Wednesday, April 2nd at 7:30 pm at the Museum, 875 Harcourt Road, in Mount Vernon. The program will be presented by Kenyon College Professor, Adam Serfass, on a most interesting topic. The meeting and program are free and open to the public, and all persons interested in area history are invited to attend.

As part of the ongoing celebration of the Kenyon College bicentennial, Professor Serfass and his students have undertaken a project involving the Latin inscriptions associated with many of the College buildings and related facilities constructed over the past 200 years, as well as those found on nearby monuments, gateways and statues.

In addition to translating and cataloging the inscriptions, the group also sought to determine details regarding the significance of the building or object being recognized as well as the historical context surrounding the event itself. Kenyon’s archives provided numerous useful details, which will be included in their presentation.

The April meeting also serves as the Historical Society’s brief Annual Meeting, which includes consideration of new and continuing Board members and related business. All Annual and Life Members of the Society are especially encouraged to attend. All visitors may come a little early or stay awhile after the meeting to browse the Museum. For more information, call 740-393-5247 or 740-397-3503.

Following its traditional winter break, the Knox County Historical Society Museum will reopen with the first of a series of free public programs on Wednesday evening, March 5, at 7:30 p.m., with the presentation, “The Early Roads of Knox County.” The illustrated program will be given by longtime Society member, trustee and officer, Gloria Parsisson.

Soon after Ohio became our 17th State in 1803, pioneers and their families began to travel westward from the original colonies to settle the new lands. Not only farmers, but skilled tradesmen, merchants, mill operators, schoolteachers, doctors, lawyers, bankers and even Johnny Appleseed had settled in Knox County well before 1820 to become part of the growing communities that mostly still exist here today. They came on waterways and by horseback, or by horse-drawn wagons. Some even walked, as did Johnny Appleseed, from Massachusetts to Mount Vernon, which he called his home base for more than 20 years, until he moved on further west in 1828.

These new residents soon needed supplies as well as the services of the fledgling U.S. Postal System in order to keep in touch with friends and family back east. So the existing Native American trails or even primitive animal trails began to be improved to establish what would become the early roads of Knox County, Ohio.

Ms Parsisson’s presentation will focus on the roads of our Hilliar, Milford and Liberty townships, as well as those three northwestern townships, Chester, Bloomfield and Franklin, that were “stolen from Old Knox” in 1848 to become part of the brand new Morrow County. The program is free and open to the public, and all persons who are interested in area history are invited to attend. For more information, call 740-393-5247 or 740-397-3503.

The November meeting of the Knox County Historical Society will celebrate the season
by highlighting the long history of St. Nicholas and Santa Claus. The meeting will be held
on Wednesday evening, November 13, beginning at 7:30 p.m., at the Historical Society
Museum, 875 Harcourt Road in Mount Vernon.
The program will be presented by the noted Santa historian, Craig Garrelts, who will tell
of the ancient beginnings of the story and the spread of the legend throughout Europe and
beyond, adapting itself to many cultures and customs over the centuries. More recently, the
transformation of St. Nicholas into Santa Claus has influenced our literature, art, music
and commercialism in many ways, especially in the United States.
Mr. Garrelts’ engaging presentation and portrayal are designed to celebrate both the
history and the joy of the holiday season. The program is free and open to the public.
Visitors may tour the Museum both before and after the 7:30 presentation, and to end this
year’s series of Historical Society monthly presentations we will be offering light
refreshments during the evening.
The Museum will be open by appointment only during the coming months of December,
January and February. For more information, call the Museum at 740-393-5247 or visit
our website at www.knoxhistory.org.

Area residents are invited to attend a special presentation by Fredericktown nurse and best-selling Amazon author, Kim Sloan, BSN, on Wednesday evening, October 9, at 7:30 p.m., to be held at the Knox County Historical Society Museum, 875 Harcourt Road, Mount Vernon.

Since 2017, both Kim and her husband, John, have been traveling the United States as Intensive Care Unit and Emergency Room travel Registered Nurses. Their lives were to change dramatically, however, in February, 2020, when they extended their assignment at a small town hospital in Southern Georgia that was to become a major epicenter for COVID, and where they would see more death in a few months than in all their prior years of nursing combined.

For the next two years Kim’s regular posts on Facebook kept her family and friends educated on the status of the pandemic. With special attention given to patient care and confidentiality, her posts provided an authentic view of what an ICU nurse experienced throughout the worst pandemic her generation had seen.

Earlier this year, Kim published her book, Memoirs from the Frontlines of COVID: Four States, Two Years, One Pandemic, which includes hundreds of her daily postings that recount her story for us all. Amazon has recently listed it as a major best-seller online.

Her Museum program will include a beautifully illustrated PowerPoint presentation, followed with an opportunity for questions and comments. The program is free and open to the public, and all persons interested in both early and recent history are invited to attend, and to stay awhile afterward to view our many Knox County Museum exhibits. For more information visit the website at www.knoxhistory.org , or call 740-393-5247, and visit the Museum on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 2 until 4:00 through November 30.

The next meeting of the Knox County Historical Society will be held on Wednesday evening, April 3, at the Museum, 875 Harcourt Road in Mount Vernon. The meeting will begin at 7:30 p.m., and visitors may see the many Museum exhibits both before and after the meeting.

The illustrated program will be presented by Mr. Rodney Newell, of Croton, entitled “The Early History and Growth of Hartford Township in Licking County, Ohio.” Mr. Newell is a long-time resident of Hartford Twp. He has a BA in psychology and history, and retired after a 33 year career in the Army Medical Corps. He presently enjoys researching and writing about local history.

The meeting is free and open to the public, and all persons interested in area history are invited to attend. For more information, call the Museum at 740-393-5247.

The Museum is presently open for visitors on Thursday, Friday and Saturdays from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. and otherwise by special appointment.

Croton Public Square looking east, Star Hotel, left background

One of the early one-room schools of Knox County will be highlighted at the next meeting of the Knox County Historical Society on Wednesday, May 1 st , beginning at 7:30 p.m. at the KCHS Museum, 875 Harcourt Road in Mount Vernon. Located on the Martinsburg Road, just inside Pleasant Township, the Morgan School served both students and families for many years.

For the past twenty years the former school building and grounds have served as both the residence and business location of Deborah and Paul Bahm, proprietors of Schoolhouse Woodcrafts, producers of beautiful and unusual handmade wooden items such as bird houses, birdfeeders, ornaments, kitchen tools, etc. The Bahms will share photographs and stories of how they have preserved and repurposed a structure in which many of our county’s earliest settlers were educated, where they voted, where they were entertained and where they spent much of their lives as part of the new and growing State of Ohio.

The meeting is free and open to the public, and all persons interested in area history are invited to attend. Visitors may also tour the Museum both before and after the meeting.

For more information, call the Museum at 740-393-5247 or visit schoolhousewoodcrafts.com.

Photo caption: Former Morgan one-room schoolhouse on Martinsburg Road, near Hopewell Road in Pleasant Township.

This year marks the 160th anniversary of both the Civil War battle of Gettysburg as well as President Abraham Lincoln’s famous Gettysburg Address, which is now considered one of the most famous military or political speeches ever given. Lincoln’s brief 271 word speech has come to represent perhaps the most influential, yet eloquent, statement on American national purpose.

On Wednesday, November 1st , at 7:30 p.m., Robert Geiger will present the entire Gettysburg story at the Knox County Historical Society Museum, 875 Harcourt Road in Mount Vernon. As a long-time history teacher at the Knox County Career Center, Mr. Geiger has inspired many of his students to appreciate our history, both local and national. In past years his high school classes have visited the battlefield at Gettysburg as well as the graves of Knox County Civil War veterans in our county.

The program is free and open to the public, and all persons interested in area history are invited to attend. For more information, call the Museum at 740-393-5247.

September marks the 150th anniversary of the completion of the C. A. & C. Railroad from Cleveland, through Akron and Knox County, to Columbus. For many years, the new line, which later became part of the Pennsylvania Railroad system, provided fast and efficient transportation north and south through Ohio. By 1916 there were 12 passenger trains stopping daily in Mount Vernon on this line, plus six more on the new B. & O. line here. It was the golden era of railroad travel in America.

On Wednesday, September 6, the Knox County Historical Society will join in the celebration of this 150th anniversary with a presentation by KCHS trustee and Centerburg-area historian, Gloria Parsisson. Her illustrated program will highlight the growth and decline of railroad service through central Ohio over nearly a century. The meeting will begin at 7:30 p.m. at the Knox County Historical Society Museum, 875 Harcourt Road in Mount Vernon. It is free and open to the public, and all persons interested in area history are invited to attend. For more information, call the Museum at 740-393-5247.