OHIO STATEWIDE FILES OH-FOOTSTEPS Mailing List Issue 31 *********************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgwarchives.net/ *********************************************************************** OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest Volume 01 : Issue 31 -------------------------------- From: "Ralph W. Cokonougher" Subject: Obit: Howard Cokonougher, 1984, Ross Co. Date: Thu, 08 Mar 2001 02:36:53 -0000 >From the 6 December 1984, Page 2, Washington C.H., Ohio “Record-Herald”: “FUNERALS. HOWARD W. COKONOUGHER. Greenfield, Ohio - Howard William (Bill) Cokonougher, 62, of 2255 Cliff Run Road, Bainbridge, died at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at his residence following an extended illness. Mr. Cokonougher was born Aug. 14, 1922, in Ross County to John Henry and Amelia Irene Miller Cokonougher. He was a farmer and a former employee of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and a veteran of World War II, U.S. Army. He was preceded in death by two brothers. Surviving is his wife, the former Viola Mae Hester, whom he married Oct. 1, 1946; two sons, Ralph William Cokonougher, of New Holland, and Clifford Eugene Cokonougher, of Greenfield; two daughters, Mrs. Judy Louise (Ronald) Brill and Mrs. Shirley Ann (Robert) Davis, both of Washington C.H.; 12 grandchildren and six step-grandchildren; one brother, John Henry Cokonougher Jr. of Chillicothe, and Mrs. Geraldine J. (Melvin) Barnhart, of Greenfield. Services will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday in the Murray Funeral Home, Greenfield, with Danny Dodds, pastor of the Greenfield Church of Christ, officiating. Burial will be in the South Salem Cemetery. Friends may call at the funeral home on Friday after 4 p.m.” _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Ralph W. Cokonougher" Subject: Obit: Henry Steinmetz, 1922, Ross Co. Date: Thu, 08 Mar 2001 02:53:48 -0000 This obituary is from “The Greenfield Independent”, 2 February 1922, page 1, col. 5: “DIED AT SOUTH SALEM. Henry Steinmetz, aged 78 years died at his home at South Salem last Saturday. Deceased was a veteran of the Civil War and has been a resident of the South Salem community for several years. Funeral services were held at Salem Monday morning and the remains interred in the South Salem cemetery.” - - - - This is from "The Greenfield Republican", Greenfield, Ohio, Vol. 54, No. 36, Thursday, Feb. 2, 1922: "NEW PETERSBURG. Mr. & Mrs. Vernon Duff, will attend the funeral of their uncle, Mr. Henry Steinmetz at South Salem today. Mr. Stinmetz was a civil war veteran. LOWER TWIN. The people of Lower Twin deeply regret the death of Mr. Henry Steinmetz, which occurred at his late home last Saturday morning. He was a highly respected citizen and will be greatly missed by his many friends and neighbors. The family have the sympathy of a host of friends in their sad bereavement.” - - - - Additional information: Henry Steinmetz died 28 January 1922. His home was located on Lower Twin Road in Buckskin township. His parents were John William Steinmetz and Frederieka Griden (or Geiger). His wife was Helen (Barleon) Steinmetz, and his children were Henrietta Emelia Steinmetz, W. F. Steinmetz, Lilly Steinmetz, G. Walter Steinmetz, R. B. Steinmetz, Minnie H. Steinmetz, Jessie Steinmetz, and H. B. Steinmetz. _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Ralph W. Cokonougher" Subject: Early stone houses-Part 1 of 3: 1796 on, Ross Co. Date: Thu, 08 Mar 2001 02:57:59 -0000 Part 1 of 3. I grant the USGenWeb/OHGenWeb/OH-Footsteps Archives and the Ohio History Network permission to store permanently for free viewing access the following copyrighted booklet "VERNACULAR STONE STRUCTURES IN SOUTHWESTERN ROSS COUNTY, OHIO". All other rights, including distribution rights, reproduction rights, and re-presentation rights are reserved by the copyright owner. Ralph W. Cokonougher, copyright owner. VERNACULAR STONE STRUCTURES IN SOUTHWESTERN ROSS COUNTY, OHIO By Ralph W. Cokonougher Copyright Ralph W. Cokonougher 1978. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Published in New Holland, Ohio. ************************* CHAPTER ONE A principal form of settlement geography is the study of vernacular architecture. Much work has been done on vernacular buildings. However, many of these studies have been classificatory in nature and have emphasized the finished form rather than the building materials that have gone into that form. While the finished form is important, one may also obtain an entirely fresh and different view of the vernacular architecture of an area by approaching the subject with a definite building material in mind. Wherever suitable building materials abound, their use in building the house of the owner of the land not only enables us to understand that the abundance and cheapness of those materials have made it easy to build a house there, but it also affords us an index of the natural products of the earth, and therefore has local meaning.1 Naturally occurring stone is one of those materials, and many forms of vernacular buildings have been constructed from it. Natural stone is quarried or gathered from the earth, and does not include manufactured stone such a brick and cement, or concrete products. Stone is a product that incorporates permanency. The primary characteristics of a building, once constructed in stone, are almost impossible to change. Thus stone is a perfect medium for studying the folk arch- Page 1. ************************** itecture of the past. The goal of this work is to locate and map vernacular stone buildings in southwestern Ross County, Ohio (see page 26) and to determine their type, age, and builders, and to show why, in a land covered with wood, some people built in stone. At first, the study was intended to cover the entire county. However, because of time and financial limitations, the study had to be reduced to a part of the county which was readily accessible and likely to be highly productive in stone structures. Subsequent random investigation proved that southwestern Ross County (an area in Ross County, Ohio, south of state route 28 and west of the eastern Twin Township boundary) would be the best area for study. Prior to an extensive field investigation, a complete search of available library resources was undertaken. This research focused mainly on masonry and the use of stone in construction, and the classification, form, and cultural indicators of vernacular architecture. Old issues of local newspapers were also reviewed to provide any pertinent information. Having chosen the area for field investigation, every passable street as well as state, county, and township roads in the area was traversed by car. The location of every stone building found was mapped and the building identified. Whenever possible, residents or owners of the buildings were interviewed. This work was completed in July, 1973, and updated July 1977. Page 2. ********************** CHAPTER TWO Stone construction is not limited to Ohio. Along with wood, stone and clay products were the first building materials used by man. As any history student knows, all the great ancient civilizations of the world, such as Mesopotamia, Persia, Egypt, Greece, and China used stone in constructing buildings. Building stone had been quarried since Roman times along the west bank of the Rhine River, and used in Europe.2 Settlers who came to America continued the use of stone in construction. English settlers in the Middle and Southern colonies, and the Dutch, all used stone.3 German colonists used stone. They preferred a house with one or two stories and a two, three, or four room plan4 and often used stone to build it. Even their smoke houses, spring houses, and bake ovens were many times built of stone.5 All these and other stone using nationalities moved into the Ohio frontier. Natural stone masonry is not a simple art. Every stone must be laid "on bed." That is, every stone must be placed in its most stable position. If it were placed to stand alone, it would be where it was hardest to dislodge. Every stone "breaks joints" with the stone above it and the stone below it. In other words, it has to be well bonded. A stone mason will say that a wall is good when it can be Page 3. *********************** put up without the help of cement.6 On the early frontier, this was not just an expression. Walls had to hold together without having to depend on mortar, for the earliest mortar was of rather poor quality7 often not better than mud. In fact, mud often was used as mortar! Another important consideration in the construction of a stone building is the width of the joints between the stones. The greater the width of the joint, the greater the risk of water penetration, loss of adhesion, and cracking.8 The width of joints in stone masonry depend on whether the stone is laid according to a method of walling known as rubble work or a method known as ashlar work. Rubble work consists of blocks of stone that are either undressed or comparitively roughly dressed with wide joints. The units are generally smaller than those used in ashlar. Ashlar consists of blocks of stone carefully and accurately dressed or carefully wrought with narrow joints. The stone units usually have a larger elevational surface area than in rubble work.9 Rubble work was common in Pennsylvania and was laid by workmen who were merely perpetuating the traditions brought with them from England and Wales.10 When a stone house was built, the type of construction, conditions of exposure, early frost hazard, type of stone used, color and texture of the stone, permeability relative to the stone,11 and the site all had to Page 4. ****************************** be taken into account. Building a stone house was not a job for the amateur! Most of the stone buildings discovered in this study date back to the early decades of the 19th century, a time when Ohio was first being settled. Living conditions were severe, land and goods expensive, and labor both scarce and expensive. Ohio was mostly covered with forest. When a house was to be built, large numbers of men had to quarry the stone and move it to the building site. A skilled craftsman, the stonemason, was required to lay the stone and to supervise the quarrying. All those laborers had to be recruited, housed, fed, and, of course, paid. Why then would someone build in stone when it was so much quicker, easier, and cheaper to use wood? One reason was that because a stone house was so expensive to construct, it functioned as a status symbol. Only those well off financially could afford a stone house. Psychologically, stone conveys a sense of permanence, capable of surviving the vicissitudes of generations to come.12 It is a living legacy, a monument to the owner and the builder that will continue after they are gone. Nothing from an architectural point of view is so satisfactory as stone. It is permanent, enduring, and genuine in appearance, and all ornaments are vastly increased in apparent value when executed in stone. Were it not for its much greater cost, stone should have been preferred over other materials for country houses.13 Page 5. ******************** CHAPTER THREE Three types of vernacular stone buildings were discovered in southwestern Ross County: 1. The typical English cottage, 2. The Pennsylvania-Virginia I house, 3. And, commercial and service structures The one room English cottage was common to all areas of the United States, so finding examples of it in stone in southwestern Ross County was to be expected. The English cottage normally had a gable roof and a gable end chimney and fireplace. People of Southern origin sometimes painted their cottage white. The residence of Robert Evans on Tong Hollow Road is a typical English cottage. It is one and a half stories high and made of well dressed limestone blocks. There is no date on the structure, but it is believed to have been used for at least 150 years. The use of mud as the original mortar attests to its early frontier construction, and to the permanence of the craftsmanship that has allowed the cottage to endure so long. The original roof has been replaced over time with a modern roof, and the house has been painted white. An addition has been added to make it larger. Another stone cottage rests on top of a small rise on Potts Hill Road. It is presently unoccupied and in poor Page 6. *************************** condition. The date of construction is unknown. The house has a wood addition and is painted white. One other stone cottage, the Holbert house on Tong Hollow Road, does not really fit into this study of early vernacular stone structures, as it has been built only in the last decade. It has no chimney, but it is a typical English cottage, and shows that the practice of stone construction is not yet dead. The most dominant form of stone house in the area was two stories high and two or more rooms long. It had two gable end internal chimneys, and sometimes a kitchen addition on back. These characteristics are typical of vernacular architectural forms known as Pennsylvania and Virginia I houses. The Pennsylvania I house most likely evolved along the lower Delaware14 from a one-over-one form of the English cottage. Two forms of the Pennsylvania I were common at the beginning of the 19th century when settlers were moving into southwestern Ross County and building stone houses. The earliest form was the Pre-Classical Pennsylvania I, which usually had four windows on the second floor, either one or two doors in front, and a single-end staircase. Its successor, the Classical Pennsylvania I, was the same but was lengthened to make room for a fifth window on the upper floor. It had only one front door, and its staircase was placed in a central hallway. Single story kitchen additions were commonly added to the rear of both.15 Page 7. ********************** _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Ralph W. Cokonougher" Subject: Early stone houses-Part 2 of 3: 1796 on, Ross Co. Date: Thu, 08 Mar 2001 03:00:53 -0000 Part 2 of 3. I grant the USGenWeb/OHGenWeb/OH-Footsteps Archives and the Ohio History Network permission to store permanently for free viewing access the following copyrighted booklet "VERNACULAR STONE STRUCTURES IN SOUTHWESTERN ROSS COUNTY, OHIO". All other rights, including distribution rights, reproduction rights, and re-presentation rights are reserved by the copyright owner. Ralph W. Cokonougher, copyright owner. VERNACULAR STONE STRUCTURES IN SOUTHWESTERN ROSS COUNTY, OHIO By Ralph W. Cokonougher Copyright Ralph W. Cokonougher 1978. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Published in New Holland, Ohio. ********************************************** The characteristics of the Pennsylvania I house are also shared by its sister, the Virginia I house. This house developed simultaneously with the Pennsylvania I as settlers migrated south into Virginia. In Virginia the chimneys came to the outside, although internal gable end chimneys continued to be built, and along the upper story façade, three windows were used instead of the four or five windows common to the Pennsylvania I.16 The wood versions of the Virginia I were raised off the ground to keep the foundation from rotting from the moisture in the ground. Good stone, of course, by comparison, does not rot, so the foundation of a stone house could be laid directly on the ground. Both the Pennsylvania I and the Virginia I houses were constructed in southwestern Ross County, but Virginia I houses are more numerous. This is not surprising, considering that the population of southern Ohio, at the time these houses were built, was predominately Southern. The earliest house in the area is a Virginia I house with Pre-Classical Pennsylvania I house characteristics. It belongs to Eugene Crusie and is on a very secluded hilltop just off the Edgington Road in Buckskin Township. The house has hand hewn rafters on which two almost illegible dates are written in Roman numerals. Mr. Crusie has only been able to make out one of the dates and it reads 1795, the year after the Treaty of Greenville effectively ended Indian hostilities in southern Ohio. The fact that construction on such a permanent and expensive house was begun so soon (or Page 8. ************************* ended, depending upon whatever the other date was) reflects the new feeling of security that pervaded the frontier. Mr. Crusie's house has two rooms downstairs and probably formerly had a three window façade before frame additions were added to the center of each side. The house has a gable end stairs typical of the Pre-Classical Pennsylvania I house. The house was made of rubble work from sandstone quarried right on the farm, most likely carried to the building site by horse or ox drawn wagons. An example of the Classical Pennsylvania I house belongs to Stanley Rolfe and is located in Bainbridge. It has all the features of the Classical Pennsylvania I and is a marvelous example of the permanency of stone. The stonework is of ashlar and every stone has been perfectly dressed to fit into place. Not one significant flaw has yet developed in the stone walls of this house. It was built 1815 - 1820,17 for John Benner who practiced law in Bainbridge and who with his father Christian Benner, operated woolen and grist mills, and an iron forge18 on the falls of Paint Creek. Christian Benner himself had had built a stone Virginia I house with a stone kitchen addition some years before. The stone for John Benner's house was obtained from a quarry on his father's farm about one mile northwest of Bainbridge. No kitchen addition was built onto John Benner's house. Christian Benner came to Ohio before 1798. He came from Germany and had lived in Pennsylvania.19 Evidently he had also lived or traveled in Virginia, or had hired a Page 9. ***************************** Southern stonemason, because he started construction of a Virginia I house in 1798. The house was finished in 1805.20 It had three windows on the second floor, a central staircase, and chimneys flush within the end walls. It also had a kitchen addition. The house is located about one mile northwest of Bainbridge off state route 41 on what is now called Benner Hill. Sandstone in shades from bright red to bright yellow was obtained for the house from Benner's own private quarry located higher on the hill and just behind the house. The walls are of ashlar construction and about three feet thick. There are fireplaces both upstairs and down, and the house still retains its original staircase of yellow popular. The porch now on the house was not part of the original construction. Just a few years ago Mr. Benner's house was renovated at a very high cost, making it possible for a visitor to see what this stone house looked like in its original splendor. About six miles northwest of the Benner house, on state route 41, just outside of the village of Humbolt, stands another stone house. It is also a Virginia I, although a Pennsylvania Dutch barn stands next to it. It can be seen that the house is of rubble work. Its date of construction is unknown. This house, like most of the stone houses in the area, is still used. In 1796, about three miles west of Bourneville on Upper Twin Road, another stone house was completed. The date, Page. 10. ******************************** according to Milton McCutcheon, the house's present resident,21 is inscribed on a stone located in the upper part of one of the chimneys. Since the date is on one of the last stones to be put in place, it is likely that 1796 was the year the house was completed. If so, it is likely that this house was begun before southern Ohio was considered safe for settlement. Mr. McCutcheon's house is a full Virginia I house. It has three windows on the top floor, and a central staircase, both indicative of the Virginia I. There is no kitchen addition. Three rooms occupy the second floor and two the first. The stonework is rubble and is made with sandstone from the Bainbridge area. On Pricer Ridge Road, near Upper Twin Road, stood another stone house. However, nothing but a pile of stone and the memories of the older residents of the area are left to indicate its existence. Three stone houses once stood within a mile of each other on Wisecup Hill in Buckskin Township. Today only one and part of another still remain. Ora Comer lives in the only one still standing. It is a Virginia I house built around 1806 of sandstone in the rubble work manner. The date is scratched, barely recognizable, on a stone in one corner of the house. A separate stone kitchen addition once stood at the rear of the house, but was torn down and replaced with a frame kitchen addition on the front of the house. Thus the façade of the house has been reversed over time, and the rear is now the front. Page 11. *************************** One curious thing about this house is that it has the chimney-end staircase that is typical of the Pre-Classical Pennsylvania I house. This is undoubtably because either the owner or the stonemason had had contact with Pennsylvania and was familiar with the Pennsylvania I structure. One factor in the longevity of Comer's house is the fact that it is built on solid bedrock. Earth often shifts and sinks over time, causing walls to crack and fall down, but bedrock hardly ever shifts. The original kitchen addition was built on earth while the main part of the house was based on bedrock. The kitchen has since disappeared but the main house still stands. Like all the stone houses on Wisecup Hill, Mr. Comer's house was built with mud instead of mortar. The stone was obtained from one or more of three quarries situated within a few minutes time of any of the houses. Another one of the houses is only half standing. The main structure of this house has fallen down but the kitchen addition still exists. The house was built in 1810 and was identical to the Comer house. Mud was also used as mortar in its construction. Local residents tell that in the second quarter of this century, severe winds lifted the roof completely off this structure, and set it down several feet from the house, giving the inhabitants quite a shock. Luckily the resident at that time was related to a carpenter and the roof was soon replaced. Page 12. ***************************** Another story goes that a black man who once lived in the house killed his wife during an argument. The grisley remains were soon swallowed up in the fireplace and the sheriff was informed that the woman had injured herself and fallen into the fireplace while the husband was gone. However, enough evidence remained to convict the man and he died serving life in prison. The last house to be built was known as the George Barleon house, named after a well known resident of the dwelling in the 19th century. The house no longer stands, but was identical in form and construction to the Comer house. It was built around 1815. Popular belief has it that all three houses were built by the same mason, and from the form, construction, and chronology of construction, this seems likely. This mason's name, however, is lost to us. On old state route 41, one mile east of Greenfield, in the village of Thrifton, stands another Virginia I stone house, made of limestone as well as sandstone. It is of rubble work and smaller than most of the houses that have been mentioned so far. The date of construction is unknown. The last and latest stone Virginia I house that I found in the area was on Irwin Road, midway between Greenfield and South Salem. Its cornerstone reads 1834. The upper story of this house has been replaced over Page 13. ************************* _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------- End of OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest V01 Issue #31 ******************************************