A New Marietta Industry

The Marietta Tri-Weekly Register, December 18, 1890

The Liedecker Tool Company paid a fair price for the Franks' property on Second Street and have industriously labored for the last three months in cleaning and painting the extensive buildings and putting in new and expensive machinery for lathe, forge and drill work. three or four forges are already in place, with derricks hung to swing the great red chunks of iron and steel to and from the ponderous steam-hammer, which works so nicely that it can break the crystal of a watch and leave the works unharmed, or flatten, at a single blow, a huge roll of iron or steel.

The boilers are new and the machinery throughout moves noiselessly. A great tank for water is erected and is the work of William Harris of Marietta.

Much of the work in putting in place the intricate machinery was done by Thomas Goldsmith, a former Marietta boy, who is now a good machinist. He works under the immediate supervision of Messrs. W. G. Hayes and I. S. Shryrock, two of the proprietors, who thoroughly understand their business. A. N. Dyer is the blacksmith now at the forge, a veritable John Brown, of Harper's Ferry fame, in skill and determination.

This firm will be enabled to cut the most delicate thread in iron or steel, or rift the heaviest output of the blue-flamed forge. 

About 1837, John O. Cram, A. T. Nye and Mr. Hendrie erected a foundry on this identical spot, and subsequently Franks & Hendrie's great oval sign - "Machine Shop" - hung over the gateway.

It is no child's play to set this great industry in motion for very little of the old machinery left in the building by Captain Franks could be utilized readily and remodeled to suit modern ideas; for at one side of the building lies, rusty and forlorn, one of the engines of the "Miles Greenwood" build of "ye olden time."

The upper rooms will be utilized for sleeping apartments, in part, and for lighter machinery and storage. Natural gas sheds its radiant heat throughout.

Not only are they experts in machinery adapted to every branch of the oil business, but this enterprising firm understand all the intricacies of gas fitting and plumbing as well as heavier work.

An establishment of this kind in the center of a fast developing oil territory, and with the advantages of gas, coke, coal, rail and river transportation, etc., cannot fail to successfully compete with foreign plants.

 

New Buildings and Remodeling

The Marietta Tri-Weekly Register, March 25, 1890

As the spring opens, many new buildings are being constracted for and the fronts and interiors of business houses are being made more modern.

Mr. P. J. Donnelly will erect a handsome residence on Greene Street next to Mr. J. L. Reckard.

The store-room occupied by Otto Brothers has been greatly improved by a plate glass front and display windows.

Mrs. Col. W. B. Mason will erect a handsome $2,000 residence on the corner of Third and Sacra Via streets, this spring, that will be occupied by herself and family. She also has two good residences next below on Third Street.

The room to be occupied by our new furniture and undertaking men, Messrs. Weiser & Reynolds, next door above J. F. Wehrs & Son on Front Street, is being remodeled inside and out. They will occupy the entire building with their business. The front stairs are being taken out and a handsome plate glass front will be put in.

Mr. J. H. Grafton has broken ground at his beautiful Fourth Street property for two handsome ten-room residences. They will be modern in architecture, equipped with all modern appliances, including water pipes, etc. The plan shows a conveniently arranged house, and one that will be attractive in appearance.

Mr. H. W. Stanley will erect a handsome and substantial residence near the corner of Second and Wooster streets.

Messrs. Dye Brothers expect to build next above the City Hall and city residence on Third Street.  Mr. John Bickert contemplates building on the other half of the same lot. Both houses will be a credit to that recently greatly improved street.

Capt. Martin Noll will commence the erection of his new residence on Second Street between Putnam and Scammel, as soon as work on the ice factory has progressed sufficiently to allow. He has modern ideas of a residence and will put up that kind.

The First National Bank block is being remodeled and improved throughout. The third floor was rearranged and has now some nice offices, a part of which are occupied by the Argand Refining Company. The second floor has been entirely changed and arranged to supply the wants of the Macksburg Pipe Line Company, which will move its offices from Macksburg to this city and occupy that floor April 1st. The banking rooms are to be changed and greatly improved. The windows in the entire building have been made full size, and a furnace has been placed in the cellar, which heats all the offices in the building.

Mr. J. D. Lashley's new residence on Second Street, Harmar, is nearing completion and is one of the most attractive in Harmar or Marietta. It will soon be the most attractive in Marietta.

 

 

Great Storm of May 21st, 1860

The Marietta Intelligencer, March 27, 1861

From the published abstract of Dr. Hildreth's Meteorological Report for 1860, we copy the following account of the great storm of May 21st:

On Monday, the twenty-first day of May, the valley of Ohio was visited by one of the greatest storms or tornadoes ever experienced since the settlement of the country. Commencing west of the Mississippi river, it swept over a space not less than six or seven hundred miles in length by fifty or sixty in breadth, following generally the course of the Ohio river, or from the southwest to the northwest. I do not know the hour of its commencement, but it was at Louisville, Kentucky, by two o'clock P.M., at Cincinnati at half past tree, at Portsmouth by half past four, and at Marietta by half past five, traveling at the rate of eighty or one hundred miles an hours, farm exceeding in rapidity that of any railway train.

Its progress was marked by desolation and ruin, in the destruction of buildings, fences, trees and boats.  Of the latter, many coal boats were sunk, and the navigators drowned. Several hundred lives were lost. Steamboats suffered less, as by their motive power they were able to gain a more sheltered position in the bends of the rivers. Louisville, Cincinnati and Portsmouth suffered more than any other towns, being larger and more exposed to the fury of the storm. Marietta suffered but little, the force of the tornado being spent before it reached that place. 

In its full force it was attended with thunder and lightning, hail and torrents of rain pouring from the clouds more like a cataract than rain. The air was filled with leaves, fragments of branches and broken pieces of buildings, which with the mist produced a darkness equal to that of a cloudy night, requiring the aid of candles to go about the house. The violence of the storm at any one place did not last over half an hour.

At Marietta the day was cloudy with a brisk breeze from the southwest in the forenoon, in the afternoon it veered to the south. At 5 P.M. heavy dark clouds appeared in the west, with a good deal of commotion and some thunder. At half past five it began to rain a little. A quarter before six wind very violent from the southwest and not in gusts as in ordinary storms, lasting about twenty minutes.

As soon as the rain ceased, the sky or hazy clouds in the west and southwest put on deep orange or copper color, and after seven until dark, a brilliant red, like the rays of light in the aurora borealis. The night following was calm and clear. The mercury in the barometer in the forenoon was 29-10 and kept rising during the violence of the tempest, being at 29-15 at 5 P.M. and at 29-23 at 9 o'clock. At Wheeling, Virginia, 80 miles northeast of Marietta, it was only an ordinary gale, its force being spent before reaching there. 

No similar tornado has visited the valley of the Ohio since Sunday, the 28th day of May, 1808.  This struck Marietta about 4 P.M. with more violence than in 1860. There was little or no rain or thunder; several houses were unroofed, some blown down; with immense destruction of forest trees. It was greater in breadth and probably as extensive as that of this year. I was living in the town at the time, and witnessed its ravages. Brown's Cincinnati Almanac for the year 1810 contains the only printed account of it that I have seen; but probably the newspapers of that period noticed it, as there were nine or ten published then in Ohio.

 

Unitarian Society

Marietta Intelligencer, January 30, 1855

To the Friends of Unitarian Christianity in Marietta and Vicinity.

The day has arrived when I think an attempt should be made to form and organize a Unitarian, Liberal, Rational, Religious, Society in this place, for the worship of God in Unity - and not in Trinity - in accordance with the plain unmystified letter of the Bible.

I shall be most happy to meet such Christian friends at the Court Room of the Court House, on Saturday next February 3d, at 7 P.M., that we may exchange christian views of our duty to God and Man - and then and there agree, if we can, upon our future course.

Nahum Ward

Death by Drowning

Marietta Intelligencer, September 5, 1839

The body of Mr. James McKenzie was yesterday found in the Muskingum River, opposite the Steam Mill Narrows. The verdict of the coroner was that he came to his death from being intoxicated, and not by means of any violence.

Descendant of Earliest Settler May Come Here

The Marietta Daily Times, May 28, 1910

If his present plans are carried out, one of the notable visitors at the big Home Coming and College Jubilee will be W. H. H. Hardin of Delaware, Ohio, a descendant of one of the first settlers of Marietta. Mr. Hardin's people were, according to the family traditions, among those who first landed in this city and his coming back to the scenes where his people helped in the beginning of Marietta will be of interest, both to himself and to the people of the city.

Mr. Hardin's plans are made known in a letter to this office and with it he enclosed a copy of the invitations to the annual Hardin family reunion, which was held last August at Glenmary Park near Delaware.

An effort will be made to induce Mr. Hardin to carry out his plans and come to this city. His letter is as follows:

Editor,

Dear Sir:

I have noticed in the papers that there is to be a celebration in Marietta the first week of the month of June and (as I understand) it is in honor of the first white settlers.

As the traditional story is handed down to us (the Hardins of today) we can boast of that honor, as our history dates back to 1772 when our people left Summerset County, Pa., and came down the Ohio river on a raft with their household effects, women and children.

Strong men managed the rafts and the older men and larger boys came overland in wagons, bringing what they needed in the way of tools and implements, such as they had in those days, together with their domestic animals.

But before their separation they gathered together in humble devotion to their Almighty God the Creator, asking for his guidance and protection in this adventure. This old stock of Hardins was a very devotional band of Christian workers and were at peace with the red men of the forest and were not injured or molested when the people were put to flight at Neighborsville, now called Newcomerstown.

At the time of the above mentioned meeting they also devised plans for the future to be acted upon in trying to get together again. This one plan was to the effect that on a certain Thursday in the near future at a certain hour in the afternoon, one of the men was to blow the old "conch" shell and if the persons on the raft heard the blowing of the old conch shell, they were to answer by shooting the old gun called "Germany." Tradition as handed down to us of the present generation says that this all transpired, and two years ago the writer of this article had the pleasure of seeing and blowing that same old conch shell at our annual Hardin reunion.

My people here are urging me to attend your celebration and if I do come, I expect to bring that same old shell with me.

Enclosed is one of our cards of last years so that you will see that I am no fraud.

Respectfully,

W. H. H Hardin

1231-2 West Williams Street

Delaware, Ohio.

P.S. The old colonists names as far as I am able to give them are as follows: T. E. Hardin. Friends Patten, Noggle, Spangler, and Cole.