Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Gevrez - A Pioneer

The Marietta Register, October 8, 1891

Theodore Gevrez, who died at his home near Elba, Monday, Sept. 28, was one of our pioneers. Born near Marietta, Sept. 16, 1810, of French parentage, his father and mother, Didier and M. Rosalie (nee De Pow) Gevrez, were both natives of Paris France, emigrating to Marietta, Ohio, in 1802. The father died in Marietta in 1814 and lies in Mound Cemetery. The mother married a second time (Phineas Beardsley) and sleeps in Regnier Cemetery, Aurelius township, Washington county, Ohio.

Theodore Gevrez, the subject of this sketch, was married to Jane Smithson, daughter of Thomas and Rebecca (nee Bennington) Smithson, natives of England, in Marietta, Nov. 14th, 1833. By this marriage four children were born (La Fayette, Didier, Theodosia, Jane and Theodore), when the mother died. Mr. Gevrez was married a second time, June 30th, 1844, to Eliza Weeks, by whom he had four children - La Fayette, Francis Marion, Charles Julius and Evaline. After the death of his second wife, Mr. Gevrez was again united in marriage, with Elizabeth Lupardis, in 1877. She, with their sons, William and Herman, survive him. Of the first wife's children, Theodosia J. (Mrs. William Scotte) of Iowa, and Theodore (residence unknown) are still living. Children of second wife are all dead except Francis Marion, who lives in Washington State.

Mr. Gevrez has been a resident of Aurelius Tp. for sixty years, was one of the early teachers of this neighborhood, has filled almost every position of trust and honor in the township and county, was a Whig till that party was no more, and has been a Republican ever since. A few years ago he identified himself with the M. E. Church at Elba, and lived a consistent Christian life to the end of his days. Rev. A. D. McCormick of Marietta preached his funeral sermon, and the whole community followed his remains to their last resting place in Regnier Cemetery, and laid him down among his kindred, September 29, 1891.

Mrs. R. E. Smithson

 

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Marietta - The Second Century of Her Existence

The Marietta Times, January 22, 1891

The Wonderful Strides Made - Some of Her Prominent Men.

Columbus Post.

Marietta, O., January 16, 1891.  When this goodly old town entered upon the second century of its existence, now nearly two years ago, literally as well as figuratively, it renewed its youth. Persons familiar with the place for years back, but who have not been here within the past year or eighteen months, would scarcely recognize the bustling, active, wide-awake city of today, with its horse-car lines, its natural gas, its water works, its electric lights, its elegant new union passenger station, and its waste land redeemed, the quiet, easy-going, non-progressive, but delightful old town, they once knew.

It is not the purpose of this communication to attempt an explanation of the marvelous transformation that has been wrought in so comparatively brief a space of time, suffice it to state that it has been. New Marietta is too busy and too happy to care for causes, being entirely satisfied with results. For years the name of Marietta was a by-word and a reproach when mentioned in connection with thriving communities of much more recent origin all through the country; but it is so no longer, being synonymous now of enterprise, thrift and public spirit.

Whatever the causes, therefore, certain it is that Marietta took on new life with the beginning of its second hundred years. First, business in all branches began to improve, reviving the hope that may have sprung eternal, but which certainly had grown dormant in the breast of the community. With the improvement in business came the ambition to place the town where it belonged in the galaxy of the lesser cities of the country, and a wide-awake energetic Board of Trade was the outcome. 

Then followed an era of public improvement, in the midst of which the old town is now flourishing like unto the traditional Green Bay tree. Within the past eighteen months the city has purchased and put into operation an electric light plant, and now has the greatest number of street lamps in proportion to population, and the best lighted streets of any place in the State; a complete and comprehensive system of water works is under construction; a first-class and splendidly equipped line of street railway has been secured and is already in operation; natural gas has been piped into the city, and is in very general and acceptable use, and with plenty of it; acres upon acres of land right in the heart of the city, but heretofore valueless because subject to overflow with every rise in either river, has been filled and brought into the market; a really elegant union passenger station, modern in design and equipment, has been constructed; another magnificent new building is now under construction for the college as a memorial to the late President Andrews; a new college for women has been established and is in successful operation; another National bank, with big capital and whose deposits are already amounting up to a quarter of a million, has been started; plans have just been secured for a larger and modern hotel, and ground has just been broken for a new Opera House, while it is the purpose of the city to pave its principal business and residence streets during the current year.

The foregoing list, to which should be added innumerable dwellings, either finished, under construction or projected, certainly speaks volumes for the place. And last, though by no means least, the city has added some  two thousand to its population by the annexation of Harmar, just across the Muskingum river. And these are only a few of the more noteworthy signs of improvement within the period named.

With all these substantial evidences of the town's prosperity, the people feel much encouraged as, indeed, they have every reason to be. The new life that has been infused into the place gives solid assurance of a bright and prosperous future.

There is no "boom" - simply a healthy, substantial improvement. Outsiders, too, are hearing of it and the influx of strangers during the past year has been so great that it is next to impossible to secure a house, notwithstanding the large number of dwellings that have been erected recently. And the new blood in the community is pushing business until Marietta will soon take rank as one of the important distributing points of the State. With two rivers, the Ohio and Muskingum, and five railroads, with another under construction, this last statement cannot be gainsaid.

The social life of Marietta has always been a distinguished and distinguishing feature of the place. The seat of one of the oldest and best known colleges west of the Alleghenies, an institution that takes rank with the great colleges of the east, and now with the new college for women - Elizabeth College - not a "female seminary," but a veritable college for the higher education of women, the social atmosphere of the place is at once, intellectual, cultured, and moral. There is little gayety here of the extreme kind, but a vast amount of social entertaining. There are literary clubs and card clubs and reading clubs and magazine clubs galore, with stated and frequent meetings, a feature of which are the excellent suppers for Marietta people are essentially good livers.

This communication would not be complete without some reference to the existing political conditions. the city government at present is Democratic, but the county - Washington - which naturally is Democratic, is now in the Republican column, owing to schisms among the Democrats. There are some strong men here, too, and men who rank high in Democratic councils. This is the home of Hon. Henry Bohl, one of the staunchest, truest and purest Democrats in the State; it is the home of Gen. A. J. Warner, whose reputation is not circumscribed by State limits; and there are others in both parties whose names, if given here, would be recognized at once as party leaders, but that the limit fixed for communications of this character has already been stretched, the lack of space precludes the enumeration.

Marietta is bound to be heard from in future in the business world as it has for many years in the educational, and The Post will be one of the mediums, for there is abundant material still left where this came from for many other communications.

F. A. L.

  

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Oak Grove Cemetery

The Marietta Register, June 14, 1866

The new Cemetery of the City of Marietta is now-a-days visited by a large number of people, and will soon become a very popular place for walks. Circumstances have been preventing that bestowal of care upon the grounds, to beautify them and render them attractive, that may hereafter be deemed advisable; but time will remedy all this. We would suggest that as soon as it can well be done, the approach from Wooster street be made an eligible entrance - by building a good carriage way across the run, and a suitable gate at the Cemetery. This will do much to render the grounds valuable in the popular estimation.

The first sale of lots was November 18, 1863.

The number of burials in the Cemetery to this date are ten, as follows:

Sunday evening, November 15, 1863, a child of E. R. Moore, aged about two weeks.

January 1864, infant of J. H. Unger.

April 25, 1864, Timothy Cone, aged 87.

____ __, ____, Alexander S. Nugent, student in the Preparatory Department of Marietta College, killed by railroad accident above Belpre, May 23, 1864, aged about 18; deposited in the vault at the Mound Cemetery, subsequently interred in Oak Grove.

November 9, 1865, Jennie A. Stratton, daughter of George E. Stratton, of Harmar, removed from Mound Cemetery.

January 17, 1866, Col. Alexander L. Haskin, aged about 35.

February 1, 1866, Miss Irene Oldham, daughter of W. H. Oldham, Esq., aged 19.

March 27, 1866, Mrs. Diantha Thurlow, aged 48.

May 31, 1866, William S. Nye, removed from Mound Cemetery - died September 21, 1862, aged 39.

June 3, 1866, Mrs. Frances Eudora Nye, wife of William S. Nye - died at Chicago, June 1, aged 35.

We would advise all who have not a special reason for burying friends in the Mound Cemetery, such as having friends already buried there, to call on A. T. Nye, City Clerk, for a permit to bury in Oak Grove, as the time my soon come when they will otherwise regret it.

 

Wednesday, April 6, 2016

Seventh of April

Marietta Gazette, April 3, 1841, p. 3

A public discussion will take place between the Harmar Lyceum and the Mechanics' Lyceum of Marietta, on the evening of the 7th of April, at the Town Hall, Harmar. Question for discussion, "Is Slavery a greater evil than Intemperance, in the United States." Messrs. Crawford, Harris, Hulet, Hodgeman, and Humphreys of the Harmar Lyceum, in the affirmative; and Messrs. F. H. Johnson, Morehead, Hendrie, McCabe, and Protsman, of the Mechanics' Lyceum, in the negative. Hour of meeting, 7 o'clock, P.M.

By order of the Committee.
March 31
J. Greiner, Sec'y.