Dorothy Montgomery is old enough to remember when the men from “the REA” (in this case, Guernsey-Muskingum Electric Cooperative) started digging holes, by hand, to set electric poles along her country road after the creation of the Ru
Montgomery recalls the excitement that spread among her family and neighbors as more and more signed up to join the co-op to bring electricity to their homes and farms — which had previously been lit by oil lamps or “Aladdin lamps.”
There’s one detail in particular, however, that is still fresh in her mind to this day. “I remember the shock if you stuck your finger in the socket,” she says. She’d been told doing that would hurt — “and it did,” she confirms. “Oil lamps never shocked you.”
In the 19th century, Ohio held a crucial place in the national transportation system as Americans gradually gained access to wider and wider areas of the country.
As a result, busy inns and taverns sprouted all over, and quite a few of them are still in business today. These centuries-old establishments are rich in history — and in some cases, ghosts. Below, we have listed some of the more notable haunted watering holes in the state for anyone interested in dinner with the departed, or an overnight stay with the spirits.
The Crosskeys Tavern
19 E. Main St., Chillicothe
Sitting beside a small campfire, its woodsmoke scenting the cool air of a perfect autumn afternoon, I could almost see the scene as vividly as the man seated across from me described it.
The “my people” he speaks of — and traces his lineage to through one of his grandfathers, a full-blooded Native American — were a mixed-race group (modern-day anthropologists term it a “tri-racial isolate”) known as the Carmel Indians. They lived in Ohio’s Highland and Meigs counties until as recently as the early 1900s.
Cherish Harrell first started collecting oddities (and later selling them) when she attended huge conventions like Cincinnati’s HorrorHound or one of the giant regional Days of the Dead events.
The Secret Chamber is not just a store; it’s a hub of creativity and community.
“We host art shows based on themes like Friday the 13th or cryptids,” says Harrell. “We also host themed classes that include making spell kits, crystals, or spooky terrariums.”
Among the events that draw the biggest crowds are the photo shoots with Krampus, a half-goat, half-demon monster from central European folklore that punishes misbehaving children at Christmastime; and the evil bunny during Easter.
Our nation’s workforce has experienced significant shifts these past few years as a new generation of workers and leaders has started taking the place of aging baby boomers like myself. Now, as I prepare for my upcoming retirement in early January, I’m in the process of turning over the leadership of Ohio’s Electric Cooperatives and Buckeye Power to our next president and CEO.
It’s a good kind of problem for farmers to have: After an unexpectedly seasonable winter and growing season, the Champaign Berry Farm in Urbana produced an unexpected bumper crop of one of its mainstays this year.
“We saved a certain section of the orchard for the gleaners,” she says. “I told the [professional] pickers not to pick those peaches. We like to give back to the community and to those in need. That’s one of our purposes in life.”
On just about any night of the week, though certainly on almost every Friday and Saturday, there’s bound to be a square dance happening somewhere in Ohio.
The Crows got into square dancing by chance. They went to dinner late one summer evening to a restaurant where many of the other patrons were wearing what they later learned to be traditional square-dancing attire: the women in ruffled skirts worn over fluffy crinolines, and men in western-style shirts that matched or complemented their partners’ outfits.
While beautiful orange-and-black monarch butterflies still flutter around area lawns and gardens between May and September each year, their numbers have declined over the years because of some combination of environmental conditions, herbicide and pesticide use, and loss of
“I remember seeing lots of butterflies in my younger days,” says 90-year-old Alvin Brown, a retired dairy farmer who resides near New Bremen. “There aren’t nearly so many nowadays, so we have to do what we can to help.”
Like Brown, Coldwater resident Norma “Skeet” Wolters became interested in helping the monarchs long before the Union for Conservation of Nature declared the species endangered in 2022. Having been involved in the Mercer County 4-H program for more than two decades, she often included butterflies in her nature presentations.
In 1772, four years before the start of the revolution that wrested control of the colonies from Great Britain, the British king, George III, gave hundreds of acres of land in what was then the Colony of Virginia to an Englishman named Alexander Smiley, for the purpose of f
Smiley, with help from the eighth and ninth generations of Smiley farmers — his son, James, and two grandsons, John and Alexander — raises corn, soybeans, hay, and Charolais beef cattle on 100 acres of the original Smiley farm, plus additional farmland they either own or lease.
“The deed from King George was for at least 500 acres, but might have been for more than 1,000 acres,” John says. “We’re just not sure because parts of it were parceled off when people got married, and lots of the property records were destroyed in a courthouse fire.”
