Cross Burned at Macksburg

The Register-Leader, March 13, 1923

Ku Klux Klan activities have spread to Macksburg village according to advices reaching Marietta Tuesday morning. The fiery cross, symbolic of the hooded order, was burned from a hill overlooking Macksburg Monday night, about eleven o'clock.

The fiery spectacle of the cross was preceded by three loud explosions. This is the second time that the cross has been burned in Macksburg.

Our Oil Wells

 The Marietta Intelligencer, February 13, 1861

We are now on the verge of a very interesting period in the progress of these wells. A great number of them are just at this time arriving at a depth at which oil is anxiously looked for and sanguinely expected. In fact, for the last two weeks, it has been no new thing to hear that someone had struck, as he thought, a paying vein; or at least, an additional one of more or less consequence. A few weeks, or a few months, at farthest, will determine whether the valley is rich with this latent treasure, or whether there is only occasionally an isolated spot of wealth. Many of the inhabitants flatter themselves that we have already passed the point of indecision in that matter. 

It is rather amusing to strangers passing along the valley to have almost constantly in view, shelters of boards about the wells, popularly called "shanties." In some places there is quite a village of them. There are, also, derricks over nearly all of the wells. These are usually made of four poles, twenty-five or thirty feet long, raised in such a manner as to very much resemble the corners of a pyramid. At the top of these poles, a pulley is attached, over which a rope is drawn and fastened to a windlass down in the shanty, by which means the drilling apparatus is hoisted from the well. These derricks present rather a novel and somewhat imposing appearance.

There are constantly persons about negotiating for sites. One would have thought that nearly all the bottoms had been let long ago. Not so, however; many of them are yet in the hands of the owners, though every nook and corner will be looked into, as the prospect becomes more favorable. 

The well usually known as "Dutton's Well," situated in Aurelius Township, one mile below Macksburg, is thought to be seriously jeopardized by the rather close proximity of two or three other institutions of the kind. The former partners, however, made a good thing of it, and some of the present ones have made in it a rich investment. A good looking engine has just been set at pumping, and a very commodious building has just been erected over the whole affair; the aggregate cost of both being, perhaps, not far from $1,500. The well has been called a "hundred barrel well." That it has produced one hundred barrels in twenty-four hours, I do not doubt, but it has fallen very far short of averaging that amount. I think that a careful calculation would show an average of about twenty-five barrels per day, from the commencement. But this at the present price of oil would have brought the snug little sum of say $35,000 and that too, in a period of about 90 or 100 days.

A few weeks ago a vein was struck some fifteen feet from the "Dutton's Well," which was thought to be a fine thing. There has, however, as yet, been no great quantity of oil taken from it. They are setting up steam works to pump it and have bored it deeper. It is owned by Dudley McKee & Caldwell of Noble County.

On the opposite side of the "Dutton Well," and but a few yards from it, are two wells owned by a company in Erie County, Pennsylvania, the affairs of which are conducted mainly by Mr. J. B. Smith of the Company. It was thought that he would make a rich "haul" from one of his wells. It poured forth for a time an exceedingly rich stream of oil. Mr. Smith, I understand, expects to procure in a short time, steam works for his wells.

So there will then be three engines almost as near each other as they can be constructed. It is not unlikely that one company will ultimately own all these wells. The net profits of them would then be much greater than when worked by so much machinery. Such, however, will not probably be the case until their aggregate proceeds shall not much exceed the proceeds of a single well if run alone.

Ruralist

 

The Country

The Marietta Intelligencer, October 6, 1858

The township of Aurelius, to which we made our first visit last week, though considerably curtailed of its once fair proportions by having a large slice cut off to make up the new county of Noble, compares well in most respects with other townships in the county. It is quite hilly, but the soil is good and in ordinary seasons yields the farmer a fair remuneration for his labors. This year they have been more unfortunate than their neighbors in the western part of the county and along the river bottoms; their wheat was an entire failure. Hardly sufficient has been harvested for seed. Oats there are none and corn is only middling. Still the farmers are hard at work, nothing discouraged but earnestly engaged in preparations for the coming year. Most of the wheat is already sown and a good deal up.

Macksburgh, which is the only village in the township, is a small collection of houses, boasting two or three stores, a tannery, a flouring mill, a smithy or two, a good school house and neat little Methodist church. Something can be said of Macksburg which is not true of many villages in the county. No liquors are kept there for sale.

The hills in Aurelius are full of coal and a very good article can be delivered at 5 cts. a bushel.

We shall expect better things of our Aurelius friends at election this fall than the meagre majority of 8 or 10 votes which they gave last year. They rolled it up to thirty-five in 1856, and they can do it again. Will you not, Republicans of Aurelius, see that not a vote is lost. Let each man do his duty and we have nothing to fear. Sham Democracy will receive a defeat that will make it ashamed ever to show its head again.

Salem is even more hilly in some parts than Aurelius, and how they cultivate many of the hills is a mystery to us. But if they can only get the surface plowed and the grain sown, an abundant crop is almost guaranteed. Some of the farmers in this township had, even this year, a fair crop of wheat. It is a limestone soil, strong and productive.

The village of Salem is a very brisk little place; the streets often present a very city-like appearance when crowded, as they often are, with people. The Steam Flouring Mill of Stanley, Feldner & Co., has been greatly instrumental in giving an impetus to business. It was erected in November last, is built of wood, 30 by 40, three stories high, with an engine room 20 by 30. It contains two run of burrs, and is capable of grinding 30 barrels of flour per day. There is also a steam saw and lath mill owned by Mr. Alden. There are four stores in the place - E. Lindner's, F. Kueck's, Darrow & Davenport's, and Stanley & ____'s -  one hotel, two wagon shops, two blacksmith shops, and a tin shop.

A select school has recently been opened by Miss Wetherby of Lowell, under quite flattering prospects. She has already an attendance of 24 scholars. They have two churches, Methodist and Presbyterian, in each of which services are held every other Sabbath.

Mr. James Stanley is just preparing the foundations of a brick Hotel which will be an ornament to the place. The main building will be 20x83, three stories high, with a piazza 6 feet wide. This will be connected with another building already erected, thus making the entire frontage over 40 feet. In the rear is a kitchen 12x16. The style is to be Swiss. Charles DeLong is the architect and builder.

Boye's flouring mill on Duck Creek, a mile or two from the village, enjoys an excellent reputation for its flour. As we passed we found him engaged in putting in a new dam. 

We congratulate the Salem people in having at last got rid of their worthless postmaster. They have been imposed upon long enough. Under a new administration we trust their interests will be better attended to.

The village of Bonn, a couple of miles south of Salem, does not present an appearance of great thrift, though we observed some recent improvements in the way of building and painting.

There are several things we should like to speak of suggested by our trip, were not our columns so crowded with other matters.

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

 

Macksburg Landmark

Marietta Register, August 2, 1890

Mr. and Mrs. George Butts and Miss B. Rice of Marietta are entertaining a party of "young folk" from the city at their beautiful country residence here. The sound of their merriment and music reminds us, almost sadly, of a decade or more agone, when their sainted mother, the late Mrs. George Rice, was "Lady of the Manor." Never was hospitality more royally dispensed than by her hands. Never was woman more revered and loved than she. A comforter to the sorrowing - a "Mother Bountiful" to the needy, a friend to all, endeared her to every one within her influence, while her womanly sympathies, generous deeds, and true nobleness made an impress on this people lasting as time. When tidings reached us of her death in an eastern city, whence her family had bourne her, hoping for relief, every heart was filled with sorrow, and when the funeral car bearing her remains to her home in Marietta passed through our village, all was hushed and mute with sadness. She is now but a hallowed memory, a pleasing recollection that we cherish as something dear and sacred.

The Rice homestead, historically, antedates anything in our neighborhood. In the year 1815, John Baptiste Regnier, M.D., a native of Paris, France, a gentleman of wealth, rare culture and finished education, came to this country, even to the Valley of Duck Creek - then a wilderness - and pitched his tent, intending to make this his permanent abiding place. With skilled builders, himself the architect, he began the erection of a French Chateau. (The same modernized is now the Rice house.) Ere the completion of his elegant home, Dr. Regnier was stricken by fever and died in 1821 in a little log hut across the creek, almost opposite his beautiful "villa," which was finished and occupied by his widow, children, and children's children a score or two of years; thence it went to strangers.

Mr. Regnier may well be called the father of Aurelius Township - by him it was organized and named (being County Commissioner), by him the forest was cut down, and the country opened up, by his efforts a post office was established, known as Regnier's Mills, P.O., and he was the Postmaster. He built the first mills on the waters of Duck Creek, a grain and saw mill. This saw mill sawed the lumber used in the building of his house, and in the making of his coffin. Mr. Fuller, a carpenter of Marietta, one of the workmen on the unfinished house, made the coffin. He donated the land and laid out a cemetery and was himself the second person to be buried there.

As a physician there was none like unto him; of great intellectual capacity, he was also a man of fine sensibilities and kindly sympathies, and his tender treatment of suffering was as efficacious as his medicine. Mrs. Regnier was of English birth, Content Chamberlain, a good woman,worthy to be the companion of such a man. After his death, she in a measure took his place at the sick-bed. Their children were Alfred, Hannah (Mrs. W. W. MacIntosh), Feliz, Julius, Francis, John, and Aurelius. Mrs. Aurelius Regnier still lives in Marietta. Felix is the only one of the children living.

Not a vestige of the ancient glory of the "Regnier Chateau" is to be seen in the "Rice Cottage," formerly of brick it is now a frame structure, while the spacious rooms, lofty ceilings and broad halls have been remodeled into a more comfortable and convenient home, only the east wing remaining and that enclosed in frame. The grounds were never so beautiful.

Ceremony in Aurelius

The Home News, May 25, 1861

On Saturday afternoon last a large and enthusiastic gathering of the people of Aurelius township, men and women, took place at Pleasant Hill, near the Methodist Church. A handsome Liberty Pole was erected by the men, when a beautiful set of Stars and Stripes, "flag of the free heart's hope and home," prepared by the ladies, was run up by them, amid the hearty greetings of the four or five hundred persons present. Patriotic speeches were made by S. L. Fisher, of Pittsburgh, and H. Schofield, Esq. of Salem, and a renewed determination was manifested by all to defend the glorious ensign of the nation's integrity to the last and forevermore. The initial steps were taken to organize an efficient military company, some twenty or thirty names being subscribed on the spot.