HOCKING COUNTY HISTORICAL AND GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY AND MUSEUM

01/13/2026

HOCKING COUNTY ALIENS MUST REGISTER AT LOGAN
The Logan Daily News of Aug. 19, 1940
All aliens residing in Logan and Hocking County must register and be fingerprinted at the Logan Post Office between August 27 and December 26, Postmaster Frank G. Brown revealed Monday. Registration is required under terms of the new federal alien registration act approved June 28.
Preparations are now being made at the Logan Office, and sample forms and a question-and-answer sheet explaining the operation and purpose of the law are available. Notices, in 13 languages, are to be posted in the post office lobby.
The number of persons who will be affected by the new law has not been estimated, but Postmaster Brown reveals, that arrangements have been made to handle the fingerprinting in the civil service room in the post office basement. Penalty for refusal can be $1000 fine and six months in jail. Fingerprinting is not required for children under 14 years of age, but guardians must register for them.
Generally speaking, foreign-born persons who have not become citizens of the United States are aliens. Persons with first citizenship papers must register.
“Registration is free. You should not pay anyone to register for you. It is not necessary to pay any person or group to assist you in registering. The government, through its post offices, will assist you as much as possible. Complete instructions and official regulations for registration post offices,” Brown said.
“The alien registration act was passed so that the United States could determine exactly how many aliens there are, who they are, and where they are. Registration, including fingerprinting, will not be harmful to law-abiding aliens. All records will be kept secret and confidential and will be made available only to such persons as may be designated with the approval of the attorney general of the United States,” Brown said.
Attention of all citizens as well as aliens is called to the laws of the United States which protect aliens in the country. A receipt card will be sent to every alien who registers. This card will serve as evidence of registration.
After registration, the law requires all aliens and parents or guardians of aliens to report changes of residence address within five days of the change to the Immigration and Naturalization Service, Department of Justice, Washington, D.C. Change of address forms are available at all post offices.
The 15 questions that must be answered cover the non-citizen’s origin, entry into this country, his associations and relatives, criminal record, military services, employment and other biographical data.
The last and most pertinent question is: “Within the past five years I (have, have not) been affiliates with or active in (a member of, official of, a worker for) organization devoted in whole or in part to influencing or furthering the political activities, public relations of public policy of a foreign government.”
The registration and the threat of war have caused hundreds of aliens to seek naturalization who previously had never considered it, immigration authorities report.
Among typical queries are these: “If I have my first papers, do I have to register?”
“I expect my second papers soon; do I have to register?”
According to the instructions all are aliens and must register if naturalization (that is the second Papers) has not been completed.
Naturalized authorities advise all people of doubtful citizenship to investigate their status, for within the past few months the possession of a birth certificate or citizenship papers has become almost mandatory.

Note: I had never heard of this before.

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01/12/2026

1964 Logan High Schools’s Champions
The Logan Daily News of June, 2, 1964
Senior Pitcher-outfielder Kelly Stimmel and junior short stop George Hummel topped Logan 1964 SEO League baseball Champions Statistically.

01/11/2026

1968 Flag Football Champions
So many familiar faces!

01/10/2026

LITTLE TOWNS CAN STRIKE FIRE WITH THE FLINT OF THEIR PAST
By Margaret Lutz - The Logan Daily News of Aug. 26, 1953
(Editor’s Notes – This is another in a series of articles on Hocking County’s history, prepared under the direction of Miss Margaret Lutz and the Hocking County Sesquicentennial Committee.)

Helen Angle was a tall, serious-minded young girl, delicately built and slightly stooped, with clear-cut alert features, a graduate of the Logan High School and Capital University where she made her own way, librarian there and at Bexley, became a close companion of Doctor Justina Eich, dean of women at Capital University, with whom she lived until her death last year.
Miss Angle, who has to her credit accepted prose and poetry, loved Logan and the Hock-Hocking Hills where she was born and buried. In speaking of Logan, she once made the telling remark that “little towns can strike fire with the flint of their past.” That is true, for in all countries there are little villages that can trace their origins over thousands of years back to the stone age itself. Though wars, famine and plagues have ravaged and totally destroyed them many times, these little villages have been rebuilt as often – for only material things can be destroyed but the spirit of the man is indestructible – it is immortal. Even little villages are immortal.
Logan, Immortal Village, sheltered and held secure among the Hock-Hocking Hills as a gen in its setting, is equally “beautiful for situation” as once was Zion of sacred lore nestled among the Judean Hills of old Palestine. Logan is also illustrious for was it not named for the great chieftain of the Mingo tribe, and was he not betrayed and in turn became the avenger? Campfires and teepees were located where Scott’s creek meets the Hock-Hocking, Old Town and in the fields across the river, and when fresh furrows have been turned, artifacts may be found today – showing the skill of the flint chipper, the stone shaper, the clay molder and the ornament designer, along with other evidence of the Red Man’s culture.
But the Mingo story is comparatively recent when one thinks of an excavation that was made near Old Town Creek a few years ago to locate a pipeline. Down many feet the steam shovel brought to surface two strange looking objects about 11 inches in length with projections or cones to the number of 10 – each hard and shining as would be the teeth of the mastodon, one of these teeth is in the possession of the Chester Blake family – the other is the collections of the writer.
The mastodon, a king of elephant, lived as late as the first glacial period, weighing about 10 tons and averaged 20 feet from tusk tip to tail curve. The cones on the teeth are worn down from use until the inside structure is exposed. We wonder if that huge hulk suffered with the tooth ache and could have been seen dancing a rigadoon in the primeval moonlight. The mound builders, the stone workers, and the fire worshippers registered their presence within America’s boundaries and dated their stay by hundreds, even thousands of years.
Within the scope of written history where volumes and veritable tomes have been written, is found the amazing story of the white man’s appearance upon the American scene. The explorer, searching for new worlds to conquer – coming across the Atlantic, the Pacific, down over the northern border and up the southern peninsula – stalking the insignia of ownership for this country, that king – this queen, or the church. And by slow accretion and at terrible cost this white invader arose above his read brother in supremacy. Other crises including the Revolution, the Civil War, the Border Forays, the Spanish-American War and the two World Wars in our own time have marked their nodes of progress on the scale of the white man’s struggle.

Our museum has some mammoth teeth that LeLand Conner found when they were working on building the new 33 around Logan. These are samples from the internet.

01/09/2026

BRICK MAKING FOR OLDF RAILROAD DEPOT WAS BRIGHT SPOT IN LOGAN’S HISTORY.
By Margaret Lutz
Sesquicentennial notes of the Logan Daily News of Aug. 17, 1953
The original map of Logan shows all acreage south of the Hocking Canal – all east and north of the Hocking River to the J.W. Rochester holdings – belonged to William Gallagher.
The tract of land, consisting of several hundred acres, was first owned by Louisa Gareschi who purchased it from Governor Worthington in 1834. She built the first log house on the knoll, but on April 28, the same year, sold to William Gallagher, who enlarged the house to its present proportions – where Etta and Fake Friesner, granddaughters, now live.
At this time the Columbus and Hocking Valley Railroad Co., headed by Jay Gould, was planning to build a station of considerable proportions, the choice of one site between the Mulberry Crossing and the Gallagher Terminal. In order to swing the deal his way, William Gallagher donated the grounds for the station as he had previously done for the car shops and Gallagher Ave. itself.
The bricks used in the construction of the station were made on the Gallagher land near the Hocking River from native clay. Jay Gould brought a colony of colored people from the deep South to make the bricks. When this colony reached Logan, they were housed in shacks built along the river.
These shacks were provided with bunks, a long room for feeding the workers and a few for families that had come to do the cooking and take care of the needs of the camp.
When the bricks were being made and processed, Etta Friesner said it was a wonderful sight to see those lithe bodies sc****ly clothed, all working together as one unit – there was rhythm and cadence in their different movements that made one think of the galley slaves of ancient times. And as the sweat exuded from exertion those bodies shone like polished ebony.
But the real treat was after the day’s work was done and the evening meal had been served. Songs arose upon the evening quietude – spirituals, folk songs, joyful songs, laments, accompanied by moanings and groanings, which seemed to carry something of the burden of slavery that had been borne for centuries, the human spirit struggling for freedom.
They could shake a limber foot, too, and come in on the after beat before the word ‘jazz” had been coined. And there was a tenor voice that a Metropolitan singer may well have envied and ponderous bass that went clear down in the cradle of the deep. It was here that “Gram” Gallagher, (Henrietta Rochester Gallagher) as she was called would say, “if that fellow goes down much farther, we will have to get out the grappling hook to pull him out,”
William Gallagher was a farmer and cultivated his acres to the limit. He employed help on the farm and there were servants in the house. There was stock to be cared for and crops to be handled and there was abundance in the Gallagher home and hospitality that included the stranger at the gates. William Gallagher became a successful former.
The colony down by the river soon learned where to get their milk supply and other produce from the farm. “Gram” Gallagher was always generous and when watermelon time came a number of colored people were invited to come and get them. She did make one requirement that they sing a few spirituals and that they eat the melons near her porch where she could both see them and hear them. She was fond of one spiritual in particular which she said was something about getting the Lord to come in. With Etta’s help, the following spiritual was pieced together:
NOW-TIME
Dey haint no time like NOW-TIME
Neber wuz no time like NOW-TIME
Dey’s a time to be a bornin’
Dey’s a time to be a dyin”
But NOW-TIME’s when de Lord’s a knockin’
A knockin’ to come in.
Halleluhah! Halleluhah!
Open dat door D’yu hear me – open dat door
De Lord’s a knockin’ to come in
Dey’s a time to be a bornin’
Dey’s a time to be a dyin’
Cuz day haint no time like NOW-TIME
To let de Lord come in -
Come on in, Lord, its NOW-TIME
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

The map is from the 1876 Atlas of Hocking Valley

01/08/2026

NEW COMMERIAL HOTEL - Located at the corner of Main and Mulberry Streets
Found in the Souvenir Edition of the Journal-Gazette of December 1896. Page 13
As if in conformity with the eternal fitness of things, Logan hotels present a rugged external appearance, like the surrounding hills and are like the hills in another respect, their true worth is not appreciated until after one gets within. While it is true Logan cannot boast of a hotel built after fine architectural designs and of imposing uphauled and modernized. Being a hotel man experienced in catering to first class trade, he furnished the house in a manner commensurate with what patrons of a high-class hotel would expect. The rooms are large airy and well furnished; the house has been renovated and newly painted and papered in all its parts; the public rooms are large, comfortably furnished in every detail that adds to the comfort and convenience of their patrons. The lady's parlor is something more than comfortable, it is also elegant. That other necessary accessory of every good hotel.
First-class cuisine had not been overlooked by the management.
Though only five months in business here, the reputation of the house, in this respect, is already extremely high. It is said, indeed, that it has few equals and no superiors along the line of the “Buckey Route,” between Columbus and the Ohio River, in regard to the viands that go on their table. One does not need to be informed on seating themselves in the dining room that cleanliness is one of the inexorable rules of the house; everything suggests it from the snow-white linen on the tables to the tidy waiters that serve the meals. All the dependents in the house are courteous to a high degree, in this particular, Proprietor Whitmer, sets a shining example. He had the tact of making the patrons of his house feel at home, something that is appreciated by travelers who know scarcely any other home. The house is lighted by electricity and heated by natural gas and is situated near the business part of the city. Travelers who are only satisfied with the best obtainable will make no mistake if they hang up their hat with the host, Witmer.

FOR SALE, RENT OR TRADE
The Hocking Sentinel on Thursday July 12, 1900
The nice hotel known as the Commercial, a 3-story brick furnished, supplied with hydrant, cistern, stabling, sewer closets on the first and second story, basement and two arch cellars and hot water heaters, good office rooms, dining rooms, parlors and b ed rooms in good order – and 12 nice building lots located in best portion of Logan, Ohio.
Also have a First-Class Soda Attachments with 3 copper generators, all handsome, modern, improved style, with patent Ice Chipping machine and syrup supplies complete. All for sale, reasonable price and terms. Call on FERDINAND R. REMPEL
The Commercial Hotel was located at the corner of Main and Mulberry Streets. Later known as the Central Hotel.

01/07/2026

HAPPENINGS TEN YEARS AGO
The Logan Republican of April 14, 23, and 25th 1938 and the Logan Daily of July 1959
TEN YEARS AGO
A FRONT ENTRANCE TO THE Arcade Shoe Store (now Shorty’s and the Washboard Factory) store is being made by employees under the supervision of William Loomis. The building was built in 1922. Since the Arcade was constructed, all the entrances to the storerooms have been from the main corridor. Under the present alteration the entrance will lead direct from Main Street. The change will also give additional window space.
Some of the businesses housed in the Arcade included Citizens Saving & Loan Assn., The Arcade Shoe Store, Poling’s Barber Shop, the Insurance Offices of Harry J. Stevenson and the law office of Canty and temporary offices of the defunct First-Rempel Bank now in the final stage of liquidation, on the first floor is occupied by the law officer of Forrest Weinrich and the lodge rooms of the Knights of Pythias.

Logan Daily News 1959
Additional info: Charles Bell confirmed today a 5 & 10 Cent store has leased the first floor of the former Arcade Building. The new store will occupy the entire first floor of the building, now being remodeled into a single room.
Workmen this week were installing a new front entrance to the store, replacing the old arcade which housed several establishments. A new stairway leading to the second floor has been constructed next to the Farmers and Merchants Bank building.
The new Murphy store now has 50 departments and over 30,000 sales items. The store manager was Arthur Gasser.
GC Murphy Co opened in 1959. Once known as the Bell Building, the Grand Opening got underway when the second floor of the building was completed. All season air conditioning was installed for the comfort of Murphy Co. Customers. New G.C. Murphy Store opening. July 29, 1959.
Each floor is scientifically lit by long fluorescent tubes and profuse color peg board floor to ceiling panels enhancing the interior appearance of the store.
The new Murphy store now has 50 departments and over 30,000 sales items. The store manager was Arthur Gasser.

01/06/2026

Part 2
OLD SI HUBBARD, FACES THE SNOWSTORM AND MAKES SOME ACQUANTIANCES.
The Democrat-Sentinel Feb. 7, 1908, by Si Hubbard
Editor Democrat-Sentinel:

J.E. Barron, our newly elected County Commissioner, has a lunch counter and ice cream parlor and does fine business. “Toby” enjoys the respect and confidence of the community in which he lives. And if the recent vote I any indication, the whole county. At present, Mr. Barron is engaged at Greendale, and his business is overseen by his clerk, Mr. Frank Mathias, a very efficient and dependable clerk.
J.C. Huls has an ice cream parlor and serves all kinds of lunch, hot and cold, and got up in the finest style known to culinary art. He has all the business he can handly attend to and increases with time. He is one of Rockbridge’s enterprising and progressive citizens and is very active in public affairs.
In the mercantile way, Rockbridge is immensely prepared. There are two first-class general stores, able to meet every conceivable demand.
George Lehman is the only tonsorial artist in the village. He has just about all he can attend to and can skin a man as scientifically as the oldest. He is certainly an artist in his business. He is as clen as a pin. As tidy as a queen and is as honest as the day is long. If George can’t shave you fast enough, he can at least talk it off for you. This is a wonderful convenience to our busy Rockbridge residents. Nobody shaves himself.
Jacob Carpenter conducts a meat market and feed store, provides nourishment for man and beast. You can get anything you want in the fresh meat line from a nice juicy roast down to hog liver and always gives you the right change and a genial smile. He has no reason to complain of his patronage.
George Groves is the most independent businessman in the village. He sells coal and feed, the staple necessaries. He doesn’t have to hustle for business; it comes to him. It doesn’t matter to him whether you want to buy it or not, he knows that cold and hunger drive you to him. His quality of coal and food are good, and the prices are always right. He has a big trade and deserves it.
J. Stoughton & Son, manufacturers of proprietary medicines, is another good-paying industry of the village. Medicine has a reputation that sells them, and they are always behind with their orders. Effectiveness and satisfaction are selling everything they can make. They are the oldest business firm in the village.
You should look after your “sole” by consulting Jacob Smith, the only “pegoligist” in the vicinity of Rockbridge. He has a high-class diploma in pegology, sewology, pasteology, and hammerology, and a visit to his shop will convince you that his repairs will always turn water and give satisfaction. Your sole mended while you wait, and at a reasonable price.
Capt. W.H. Huls, proprietor of the Rockbridge Hotel, is one of the most accommodating landlords in the valley. He runs a “home” house, a place where you are always welcome and where you can always get plenty to eat. The provisions are set before you, space forbids specification, and you can help yourself. If a man does not get enough, it’s his fault. There is absolutely no fault to be found in the cooking, it is always “just right,” and the highest compliments to Mr. Huls is, always come again.
Dan Carpenter is the truant officer. He just simply delights in hunting the kids up on nice summer days but is not stuck in his job in this kind of weather. Dan has an able assistant in the “Civil War Turtle” he found a couple of years ago, with the inscription all over its back and with dates from B.C. down to the present time. Dan says he found the turtle plowing corn, or running a line fence, I don’t recollect which and concluded that if it is able to transact business of that kind, he’d utilize it in inclement weather. So, when it is raining, sleeting, or snowing and the thermometer gets down below Enterprise he sends out his “old land turtle” and he marched them in while Dan sits in his easy chair by the fire and sings “everybody works but father.” The turtle is a “kid napper.”
The pride of the village is the Imp. O.R.M., Regenpa Tribe No. 63. This is one of the most substantial tribes in the order, not as large numerically or financially, but a big, if not greater, in enthusiasm. The tribe is in excellent financial condition; has a nice hall, 20 x 40, richly, and serviceably carpeted, elegantly, and substantially furnished; have regular meetings, always fully attended. The officers of the tribe are: C.L. Troxel, prophet; Geo. Stoughton, S.S.; John Conrad, J.S. This tribe celebrated its 1st anniversary last regular meeting night was a feast and social good time. A large number of pale faces were invited to the feast, and enjoyed the evening as much or more so, all the braves, especially at the feast. Space will hardly permit me to enumerate the ordinary dishes, but it is safe to say deer, buffalo, and bear were in evidence, bear enough to feed the little braves after the pale faces gorged themselves. This was one of the evenings in the history of Rockbridge and will long be remembered. Boyd Troxel, the life of the town, soldier, statesman, farmer, doctor, minister and in fact the General Gage of Rockbridge is able to sit up and notice things. He has for several days, yes, years past, been troubled with somewhat unaccountable and unpronounceable disease. Albert Weir Claims “hungereatemup.” Al says it is a D**o disease with a Hungarian name. He says a person imagines all the time he is hungry and is continually eating when he can get anything to eat. The only exercise they take is a half hour after supper, which is if a person is able to carry what he has eaten. He says Boyd has been unable to take this much needed exercise until very recently; that the provender has failed him and he has been compelled to come out and ”dig.” Al says that won’t last long for “as soon as Boyd sees his shadder” he’ll rush back in his hole and won’t turn out till spring.
We desire to say that we are under many obligations to School Examiner and Justice of the Peace Stoughton for the many courtesies extended to “Old Si” during his short stay in Rockbridge,
Signed,
Si Hubbard

01/05/2026

OLD SI HUBBARD, FACES THE SNOWSTORM AND MAKES SOME ACQUANTIANCES.
The Democrat-Sentinel Feb. 7, 1908, by Si Hubbard
Editor Democrat-Sentinel:
Rockbridge, February 4, 1907.
A very liberal fall of the beautiful snow last night induced me to postpone a contemplated trip over Route Number 3 long enough to give your readers a meager description of Rockbridge and its general support.
Rockbridge is a beautiful little village of perhaps four or five hundred, situated on the Hocking River bottoms, some seven miles west of Logan and on the Hocking Valley railroad. It is a very busy village, in fact, it is a very strenuous business competitor to Logan and her suburb, Lancaster.
Rockbridge boasts of two churches, United Brethren, presided over by Rev. J.O. Geiger and Adent Christian with Elder Wesley McBroom in charge. These churches have a large and growing membership, very devout and attentive and abundantly financially able to meet her demands.
The school is equal to those of the city; it is graded under the jurisdiction of Prof. C.B. Huls as principal. Miss Clara Nunemaker, of Logan has charge of the intermediate department, and Miss Clara Rulon of Logan, has charge of the primary department. With the able supervision of Prof. Huls and the efficient service of Misses Nunemaker and Rulon, both Logan Products, the schools cannot help but rank A1.
The village has one physician, Dr. W.H. Lee, a very able and accommodating gentleman, who enjoys a very lucrative practice. He is very active, enterprising, and public spirited, who commands the respect of the entire village.
The village industries are few but valuable. The Central Silica Company has possible the lead. This company quarries and crushed sand rock and produce the very highest grade of sand for glass purposes. The sand is washed and dried and shipped to various glass factories. The plant employs quite a few hands at first class wages, and with existing conditions unable to meet the demands: although shipping from 20 to 30 cars per week.
The Rockbridge Cement and Lath Company is a good second, not only in terms of patronage, but in terms of the number of employees. They pay the very highest wages for expert labor and enjoy a first-class financial standing. They, too, are unable to meet the demands for cement and lath. The company proposes to increase the capacity of their plant commensurate with their growing demands and it promises to be one of the largest and most profitable industries in the Hocking Valley. Mr. Amos Carpenter is the general manager of the company, and the rapid growing demands demonstrated his efficiency.
David Smith and L.S. Mathias are the village blacksmiths and are taxed to their utmost in hammering out the work demanded of them. They do all kinds of smithing and vehicle repairing and are making money hand over fist.
John Inboden, builder and contractor, has his hands full and has not an idle moment. He is an expert stone mason, has a fine reputation as a builder, and generally does everything in sight.
Horton & Goss, the jolly stock-buyers are doing a land office business. They buy, sell and ship cattle, hogs, and sheep; tell you a good story, feed their horses out of your manger, eat up everything you have on your table and go from you, leaving a good impression. They are just as literal in prices as they are ravenous in their appetites and not only have a good trade but enjoy the best of reputations, both financially and socially.
Mose Woltz, the man who put down the rebellion by swindling the Southern Confederacy out of their cavalry horses, is in the livery business, has the horse that General Zollicoffer rode on the day he was killed by General Gage, not to hire out, but as a relic and to show his old comrades as they pass that way. Mose is a “hoss trader” from away back and is “well calculated to deceive the unwary.” He traded horses “sight un-seen,” with a trader from the back woods, one day, and got the worst of it in looks at least. He got a nice little bay mare, a good willing worker, but it had no hair on its tail. It looked like a July rabbit and of course was poor trading stock. Buts hard to do Mose. There was an old horse died in the neighborhood and it had an unusual amount of tail. Mose didn’t do a thing but “looked up the dead hoss” and clip the hair off the tail and tied on the stub of the “rabbit,” plated in and knotted it up with baby ribbons and took it to Lancaster, a suburb of logan, and where there was number of sophisticated traders; traded off to a tender foot, got a good horse and $50.00 to boot. Mose is just an able to administer to your wants in the livery business as he is to skin you in a “hoss trade” and he has a very lucrative business.
In the mercantile way, Rockbridge is immensely prepared. There are two first-class general stores, able to meet every conceivable demand.
Mathias & Stoughton have a two-story structure filled from cellar to garret with dry goods, notions, clothing, boots, shoes, stoves, farm machinery, etc. The goods are of the latest patterns and of the most prevailing ideas and color. The machinery is modern in every detail, and the groceries the best the market affords. They also buy and sell country products, ties, posts, etc. In addition to their storerooms up and downstairs, 20 x 60, they have a side room as a ware room of equal dimensions. They also have a commodious implement room adjacent and have contracted for an out-ware room 20 x 32. This firm does immense business, having last year, run over $25,000. They are both, genial gentlemen courteous and accommodating, and are honored and respected by every resident of the village.
F.E. Comstock has an immense stock of general merchandise.
The main room is just simply crowded with desirable goods, good honest goods, with the prices that move them and a quality that induces you to come again.
There are dry goods and lotions in profusion, men’s supplies, ladies’ supplies, boots, shoes, rubbers, etc. A large and varied stock of groceries is always fresh and clean. The side room is occupied by kitchen furniture, produce and such and is full to overflowing. It is a modern market in every sense of the work and is immensely patronized. Frank Comstock is an up-to-date businessman, honest, genial, accommodating an enjoys the respect of the entire community.