Marietta Electric Company Dedicates New Building

The Marietta Daily Times, July 16, 1956

The new $100,000 all-electric headquarters of the Marietta Electric Company will be opened to the public August 2 after an appropriate dedication program. The local utility will move all of its operations now located at 309 Putnam Street to the new building after the dedication and will be open for business on August 6.

The handsome brick building has been under construction for several months. The business property replaces a 100-year old residence that was known as the Nye property. To retain the pleasant character of Fourth Street, the new power company building was built back on the lot to the present property lines, and the ornamental ironwork from the Nye property porch was restored and is being used on the electric company porch.

The headquarters of the Marietta Electric Company, constructed at 309 Fourth Street in 1956, was later used as offices for the Washington County Sheriff's Department. The ornamental ironwork was preserved from the Nye home that originally stood on the site.

The ornamental ironwork originally enhanced the house owned by Rufus R. Dawes in 1865. It was later the home of James and Mary Franks Nye, 309 Fourth Street. A descendant of Marietta pioneers Ichabod Nye and Minerva Tupper Nye, Katherine Parr Nye (1868-1951) was the last of the Nye family to live here.

As might be expected in an electric company headquarters, the new building is all-electric. In fact, it is Marietta's first all-electric building. Heating and cooling of the new building will be with a heat pump. Other features of the all-electric building will be an electrically heated entrance walk and porch (for winter's snow and ice); an all-electric demonstration kitchen, modern glare-free and shadow-free lighting, an appliance service center, and a customer's parking lot in the rear of the building.

The building is of modern steel and concrete construction. The ceilings are of acoustical tile and the lighting is fluorescent, except for a few specialized applications of incandescent fixtures.

On the basement level in the new building will be the appliance service shops and the appliance storage area. F. M. Chichester and Herbert Bailey will have their offices in this area.

On the first floor level will be the display areas for new appliances, the new all-electric demonstration kitchen, the cashier's office, and other offices of the organization. Home Economist, Sales Clerk Delores Rowley, Cashier Mrs. Dorothy Hue, Bookkeeper Gloria Turrill and Accountant Glen Simonton will have their offices on the first floor.

On the second floor level will be the office of Manager H. L. McMillen, and of commercial and sales representative R. K. Nelson, and of F. B. Felker, area development and new business; Wayne Morgenstern, residential representative; John Armor, estimator; Charles Shears, meter reader; and Charles Davis, collector.

The dedication on August 2 will be followed by an open house from 2 pm to 9 pm on August 3. The day following the open house will be used as a moving day by the electric company to transfer everything from the old building at 309 Putnam, to the new building at 309 Fourth Street.

For those who are historically-minded, it might be pointed out that this move to the new building is being made in the 60th anniversary year of the Marietta Electric Company. It was founded in 1896 by Nelson Moore, Andrew L. Gracey, John Kaiser, J. S. H. Torner, W. H. H. Jett, D. T. McEvoy and H. E. Smith.

Cow Causes Suit for $5,000

The Marietta Daily Times, February 24, 1937

A damage suit for $5,000, growing out of the impounding of a cow, brought 22 witnesses before the Court of Common Pleas on Wednesday and it was estimated that trial of the case will occupy two full days. The title of the case if Howard E. Kaneff vs. Henry B. Lyons. Kaneff is a resident of Warren Township. Lyons is a resident of Parkersburg, W. Va., but owns and operates a farm adjoining the Kaneff place.

On the night of August 9, 1936, it is charged, cattle on the Lyons farm broke down a line fence and one of the cows trampled the garden at the Kaneff place. Kaneff caught the cow and detained her in his barn, claiming damage to his crops.

Lyons is alleged to have gone before Squire Lycurgus C. Hall at Constitution and there to have filed an affidavit against Kaneff charging him with larceny. A warrant was issued and Kaneff was arrested and was lodged in jail where he was held, he charges, for three and a half hours. Then Lyons withdrew the charge and he was released.

The trouble between the two men created a lot of excitement at the time and Sheriff Arthur D. Mackey was summoned to the Kaneff place to stop a threatened fight. The sheriff quieted the trouble and ordered Lyons to go to his home. Instead, he went to court and procured a warrant, it is alleged.

Kaneff sued Lyons for $2,500 for falsely accusing him of larceny, and an added $2,500 for false arrest and wrongful imprisonment. 

Plaintiff is represented in court by Attorney Charles D. Fogle. Lyons is defended by Frederick C. Myers and the firm of Strecker & Williamson.

The Marietta Daily Times, February 27, 1937:

Verdict in Damage Case Is Returned

A verdict for $2,230 on a damage claim of $5,000 as sued for by Howard E. Kaneff of Gravel Bank against Henry B. Lyons of Parkersburg, W. Va., was returned by a jury in Common Pleas Court Friday evening. The jury deliberated for about 45 minutes and 10 of the 12 jurors signed the decree.

Options Site for Station

Marietta Daily Times, December 9, 1922

A real estate deal of some magnitude, which likely will result in the opening of another modern gas filling station, at Front and Greene streets, is pending this week and it is believed by those concerned that it will be concluded within a few days. The National Refining Company is said to be the prospective purchaser and the property involved is known as the Flatiron building.

An option at an agreed price has been given the company by A. Cassis, a Sistersville Syrian who acquired the property some years ago, and if the deal goes through, the old building will be razed and a modern filling station will be constructed.

The Flatiron property fronts on Greene, Front and Ohio streets and as the name implies, is a triangular shaped piece of ground splendidly adapted to the purpose to which it would be put by the Refining Company.

 

Divorces

The Home News, March 3, 1860

Two unhappy couples have had the silken (?) bands removed by the influence of Judge Nash, at the present term of Court.  Mrs. H. J. Cammel asked the favor on the charge of "extreme cruelty" on the part of her late liege lord, M. M. Cammel; and Mrs.Eunice Hartshorn, because her worser half has been wilfully absent without just cause or provocation three years.

Pioneer Merchants of Marietta

Marietta Tri-Weekly Register, April 11, 1893

Read by M. P. Wells, Esq., April 7th, Before the Pioneer Society

The pioneer of the pioneer merchants was Dudley Woodbridge, grandfather of the Hon. George M. Woodbridge, whom you all know. He came to Marietta in the summer of 1788 and for several years his partner was Harman Blennerhassett, and the style of the firm, Woodbridge & Blennerhassett. Mr. Woodbridge was succeeded in business by his son Dudley, and George, John and William, his sons, were also in business here.

The pioneer merchants of Harmar were Col. Augustus Stone, Henry Fearing, David Putnam, Abijah Brooke and Levi and David Barber.

It will be fifty-two years next Monday since I came to Marietta. The State was then 39 years old and the town 14 years older than the State. The merchants in business at that time, April 10th, 1841, were Woodbridge & Racer; Col. John Mills; Joseph Holden; John Brophy; Nathaniel Holden; Daniel Green & Son; Stafford, McCune & Steven; Weston Thomas; Dr. John Cotton; Woodbridge & Edgerton; Slocomb & Buck; C. & S. Shipman; J. E. Hall; Wyllis Hall & Son; Hiram Hill; Noah L Wilson; F. B. Loomis and Bosworth & Wells. Very soon followed William F. Curtis; Charles Sheppard; Barber & Rolston; John Marshall; E. B. Perkins; Gurley & Cross and A. & I. Waters.

Joseph Holden did business on the corner now occupied by the First National Bank, and the store of Col. John Mills stood on the site of the Bellevue Hotel. Most of the other stores fronted on the river. The first store opened on Front Street was by Bosworth & Wells. W. F. Curtis, F. B. Loomis, Gurley & Cross, E. B. Perkins and Charles Sheppard followed. Of those involved in but one line of business, Dr. John Cotton was the pioneer in drugs; Slocomb & Buck in books; and Bosworth & Wells in hardware. The other merchants kept a general assortment of goods.

In my early life here we had neither railroads or telegraphs. The steamboat and the stage coach furnished the public means of travel. The farmers around Marietta for the most part lived in log houses and came to town to do their trading either on foot or on horse-back. 

From Old Virginia customers came more than a hundred miles, as this was the nearest point at which they could obtain salt. They reached the Ohio river at "Vaucluse," opposite Newport, and the Marietta & Newport Turnpike was built to invite the trade to Marietta. The nearby planters of Virginia often sent their slaves to do their trading and allowed them to accompany them when they came themselves. Now and then they would lose them, as the people on this side always run an underground railroad with terminus in Canada.

Some few farmers owned two-horse wagons, but they were a rarity on our streets. The Marietta "Transfer Company" was then made up of four ox-carts driven by John Marshall, John Richards, Thomas Brookover and St. Clair Muncey. 

Gold and silver were scarce commodities. A five franc piece passed readily for a dollar and the small change which was of Spanish origin was known as fips, bits or levies. The paper money varied in value, but most of it was at a discount of from 10 to 50 percent. 

The merchants bartered their goods for the produce of the country which, outside of the usual farm products, consisted of grindstones, seneca oil, ginseng, yellow root, bear, deer, otter, mink, raccoon, muskrat and rabbit skins. A muskrat skin was legal tender for a pint of whisky and a coonskin for a quart.

The early merchants of Marietta were largely of New England origin and for the most part, men of sterling integrity, possessed of more than average business sagacity. Some of them, by their good deeds and public spirit, have indelibly impressed their names upon the history of Marietta. A Marietta merchant was one of the founders of Marietta College. 

A branch of the State Bank of Ohio was established here by a Marietta merchant. It supplied a felt want and did our county great good. The Marietta & Cincinnati Railroad, connecting this city with Cincinnati, was projected and built by a Marietta merchant at a cost of several million dollars. Marietta merchants, under the name of the Marietta Ship Company, built the beautiful barques, Marietta, Muskingum and John Farnum. With their rich cargoes of Ohio produce, after leaving New Orleans, they sailed across the seas, one to Boston , one to Cork, Ireland and one to Liverpool.

Coming down to yesterday, it was the liberal subscriptions of the merchants of Marietta that made it possible for Marietta College to erect the new Academy, at a cost of $27,000, which is the pride of both college and city. And finally, the money of Marietta merchants made it possible for the pioneers to hold their banquet in the beautiful "Bellevue Hotel," in which we are now assembled.