Hudsonhubtimes.com - Kaleidoscope: History plentiful in Tuscarawas

by Ken Lahmers, Aurora Advocate editor

Forgive me for boasting, but the county where I grew up in Ohio -- Tuscarawas -- is a wonderful place for history buffs to visit.

From Schoenbrunn Village, Ohio's first white settlement, to the Separatist town of Zoar dating to the early 1800s, to Fort Laurens, Ohio's only Revolutionary War fort, there is plenty for visitors to see in Tuscarawas (an Indian word meaning "old town" or "open mouth)."

Last week, I wrote about Ernest "Mooney" Warther -- "the world's master carver" who was one of the county's native sons -- and his museum of railroad steam engines and other carvings.

The day I visited the Warther museum, I made a whirlwind trip from Kent through Stark County and around Tuscarawas County, which covered 209 miles and lasted about eight hours.

As I've been doing in the last several months, I visited places where I haven't been for a while -- some as long as 40 years. It reinforced the fact that things have really changed.

Starting out in the north

My journey around the county commenced in Bolivar, just off Interstate 77, where Fort Laurens was situated for less than a year in 1777 and 1778.

No remnants of the fort remain after 230 years, but an excavation project in 1972 unearthed many artifacts which are displayed in a museum. The tomb of an unknown soldier of the Revolutionary War also is on the grounds.

In the 1800s, the Ohio & Erie Canal passed through what once was a part of the fort. The grown up channel of the canal is visible, and a walking path with stone sides goes across it.

Fort Laurens was an outpost between Fort Pitt and Fort Detroit. In its museum, built in 1971, a 15-minute video can be viewed and lifelike wooden pioneer/soldier figures are displayed.

Heading down Route 212, I spent about an hour walking around the gardens and along the streets of Zoar, something my folks and I did just about every summer when I was a youth.

The German Separatists who founded Zoar in 1817 were religious dissenters. Several of the old buildings and homes in the village are open, and some are manned by costumed interpreters.

Many buildings are furnished with antiques and items used by the Zoarites. The village is like a living history museum. The largest building is the No. 1 House, built in 1835.

I was surprised there weren't many visitors in town that day. High fuel prices must really be cutting down travel, even for those not that far away.

At the old Zoar Hotel, my folks and I ate many times on Saturday nights. Sadly, its restaurant closed around 1990. A restaurant called the Zoar Tavern operates in an old structure across the street.

Around the south and east sides of the village is the Zoar Levee. It protects the town from the Tuscarawas River, which typically spills over its banks during late winter thaws each year.

The levee is maintained by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and is due for an extensive upgrade in 2014.

About 3 miles down the road from Zoar, where Route 212 intersects with Route 800, a trail winds through the woods and across the river to Boy Scout Camp Tuscazoar, created in the 1920s.

On the trail is what is believed to be the only remaining Fink Truss Bridge.

It was built in Dover as a highway bridge over the river, moved to its present location in 1905 and abandoned in 1940.

On to Dover, New Philly

Down Route 800 about 3 miles is the Dover Dam spanning the river, which I always found to be fascinating as a youth -- and still do. It's one of 14 dams in the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District.

The concrete dam was built in the 1930s as a WPA project and was one of the nation's first flood control dams. It's about 820 feet long and rises 80 feet above the river bed.

After driving through Dover and visiting the Warther museum, it was over to my hometown -- New Philadelphia -- where I stopped by Schoenbrunn (beautiful spring) Village.

The Moravian Church founded it in 1772 as a mission to the Delaware Indians, and it thrived until 1777. There were 60 buildings and about 300 residents. Seventeen buildings have been reconstructed, and there are a visitors' center and cemetery.

A half-mile from Schoenbrunn is Evergreen Cemetery, where my parents are buried. I stopped by their grave to pay my respects.

Right across the road is Harry Clever Field -- the New Philly airport -- where former astronaut and U.S. Sen. John Glenn took his first flying lessons in the early 1940s, with Clever as his instructor.

My uncle worked at the airport in the early 1950s, when Lake Central flew in and out. Many were Douglas DC-3s. One of my uncle's jobs was monitoring weather conditions.

New Philly also boasts Tuscora Park, which celebrated its centennial last year. It features a 1928 Herschell-Spillman carousel, which has been there since 1940.

Zeisberger, 'Trumpet'

Heading out of the east end of New Philly, I traversed Route 416 to Goshen, where I stopped by the grave of David Zeisberger, a Moravian clergyman/missionary who helped to establish Schoenbrunn.

The story of the Moravian missionaries' settling of eastern Ohio, including Schoenbrunn and Gnadenhutten, is told each summer in the Ohio Outdoor Drama Association's "Trumpet in the Land" at an amphitheater near Kent State University's Tuscarawas Campus.

Playwright Paul Green wrote the play, which opened in 1970. I was very excited when the proposed play became reality, and I bought a lifetime membership in the OODA.

I haven't watched the play for about 14 years, but want to get back in the next couple of summers.

As it reached late afternoon, my travels continued into the southern half of Tuscarawas County, but you'll have to wait until next week to read about that.

E-mail: klahmers@recordpub.com

Phone: 330-688-0088 ext. 3155